Koharuno Kumiko, Villager of the Leaf
by oneofthoselostsouls
Summary: Olivia finds herself in the narutoverse as a young villager. It sounds like another cliché but Olivia just wants to survive long enough to go home. She has no interest in becoming a ninja, despite attending the academy. Unintentionally becoming friends with 8 year old Naruto causes her no end of trouble, as well as her interactions with the Uchiha Clan. OC 'Au-ish'
1. Initial Exposure

**I know it's an over-used theme; girl ends up in Naruto, becomes an amazing ninja, has a laugh and all the guys fall head over heels for her. **

**This is not what's going to happen to Olivia. **

**Olivia (who is not named after me or my friend/cat/inner self) is a relatively normal girl, who had something extraordinary happen to her, and she is going to react as expected. Of course - by 'as expected', I mean how I think someone _could _react. After all - no one person will react identically to another. After she gets somewhat settled in this crazy world she ended up in, she's going to pretty much do what she thinks is right, whilst trying to avoid trouble, at least to start with.**

**She is not  
- uber-powerful - or even slightly powerful - any strength she gains will be from sheer hard work,  
-beautiful - I mean sure, she's not ugly, but to be honest very few people are truly ugly. Perhaps not drop dead gorgeous, but I like to think of beauty being something you choose to see. So yeah, I think that she's got that vague, subtle prettiness thing going on,  
-genius, though granted she's book-smart and has a decent memory, but nothing more than that. She _is_ manipulative and kinda sneaky - everyone has faults, this is one of hers,  
-related to the Uchiha/Hyuuga/Hatake-clan - noooope! Ok, ok - she _is_ related to Sakura but seeing as Sakura's from a civilian family I hardly would call this majorly Sue-ish,  
-going to tell the hokage she knows the future or is from another world; right - she doesn't want bad stuff to happen to Naruto etc, but she's not going to do that in an attempt to change anything. She's gonna do something - yes, that specifically - no.  
-a saint. She's a good person, who makes mistakes, does bad things and sometimes doesn't feel that guilty for doing them.**

**Ergo - not (that much) of a Mary-Sue.**

**So - don't be narrow-minded and just assume this fanfic will suck because of its nature. Give it a chance- I know it is an over-used plot line – I still like the idea and want to give it a go. Critique me on how I write, as (though I do genuinely try) my writing is not perfect. However – don't flame me on how 'worthless' my story is based on my plot-line choice. **

_**Edit - 16/11/12**_

**I'm going over this again; trying to make her responses believable. Combined Chapters 1 and 2. Also – spoilers!**

_**Edit - 3/3/13**_

**Yup - going over this again. I'm having a little trouble with chapter seven - I've got so many ideas, so I haven't got writer's block, more like struggling to put my thoughts into words. So in the meantime, I'm going over previous chapters - hunting inconsistencies, mini plot holes and spelling errors. I also, rather suddenly, realised that in Japan, the school begins in spring... I think. So anyway, I removed the notion of Naruto's birthday being close to the start of school. **

**SPOILERS!(*&^%£^* {! :3**

* * *

'Initial Exposure'

Olivia had always considered herself a normal person. She was kinda pretty without being stunning, clever without being genius and happy without being spoiled. However, she was not currently feeling very normal (pretty, clever, happy or otherwise). She was sat, head hid in her knees and arms wrapped around her body, in a room she had never seen before. She had been in her room, and then she had been in a different room.

Just like that.

There had been no sounds echoing or lights flashing, no mysterious portal or figure, she hadn't had a fatal accident, or touched any weird things – she had just been staring out her window, had blinked once, and then had blinked several times as the image in front of her suddenly changed. She had stared at it for a long moment, and then looked around the room eyes open wide – waiting for it to change back to her own room.

When it hadn't, she had taken a deep breath - managing just about to not start screaming or something along those lines, calmly curled up on the floor in a nice safe corner and – eyes shut tight – waited for her little hallucination to end.

Eventually Olivia peeped out from her spot in the corner. The room was still there; different colour walls, a wooden floor instead of a carpet and blinds instead of curtains. There were three doors in this room; two were open revealing a built-in wardrobe and a tiny en suite. The third she assumed led out to a landing or something.

She pinched herself, hard. There was no change in what she saw. A bookcase in the right hand corner, opposite the bed. A desk was beside it, opposite which was a wardrobe. Next to the wardrobe door hung a mirror. Everything looked so real; creases in the bed sheets, a book lying on the desk and a small cactus on the windowsill she hadn't previously noticed. It looked so... real, but Olivia's mind kept rejecting it.

Olivia gulped as she swallowed a collection of panic-induced tears that had formed in her throat; she had always cried easily. _'No... This cannot be real. It can't be! It- .' _For a second tears started welling in her eyes, but she held them back; she was seventeen for goodness' sake - she couldn't be a crybaby any longer. She took another deep breath, then another and another.

_'This cannot be happening; this is impossible. This world isn't real! I've turned insane, or I'm hallucinating... but I don't feel like I am... but how would I know? How could I tell? Am I hallucinating? Is there a gas leak or something? Am I crazy?' _She pinched herself again, but other than her arm stinging lightly, there was no change.

'_Oh please, please - let me go home - please!' _She prayed, but God left her unanswered and she remained in the unknown room. '_This better not be some sort of divine test!'_

After what seemed like forever, her situation had still not changed and Olivia was still in her corner – now shaking like a leaf as her body went into overdrive from shock and fear. Adrenaline flooded her system, her blood rushed in her ears and her heart thumped in her chest - it felt like every muscle in her body was twitching with energy. Not that it mattered; she was too afraid and bewildered to move, her mind yelling a mixture of random theories of what happened, what she should do and how impossible this whole thing was.

She had recognised what she had seen from the window. She'd seen the image before. The image meant that if she really was not dreaming, dead or hallucinating, and if she had not been kidnapped by some _really_ dedicated anime – otaku, or something else she actually believed vaguely possible, then she was _in _an anime. An anime she used to watch over three years ago.

Naruto.

If Olivia had been less afraid, she might actually have laughed at how cliché the idea was. It wasn't so funny in real life however.

Whenever Olivia had thought, randomly, on how she would most likely die, she had thought – old age hopefully, perhaps a disease or car-crash – fairly reasonably guesses. However, it seemed like she was going to be found in the Hidden Leaf Village, with no papers or way to explain how she managed to get in the village without the guards noticing, get tortured and then killed. She had definitely never predicted such a random, improbable death. Admittedly, she was being incredibly negative about things - was not Konoha supposed to be the goody-two-shoes nation? That being said, Olivia was a realistic sort of person, optimistic occasionally but mostly just accepting of the fact that the world was neither fair nor nice.

Olivia vaguely wondered, as she – now no longer shaking – sat waiting for the ninjas to find and detain her, how she had gotten here in a situation that nearly every Naruto - otaku had at least considered wishing for.

(Even she had, when she was at the height of her Naruto addiction, considered it and thought about what she would do.)

She had not been reading the manga, or watching the anime. She had not taken part in any creepy rituals, or found any random ninja-items in her garden. In fact, the only reason she knew half the things she knew about the Narutoverse, was because one of her friends - who was obsessed with the manga - kept her posted on the latest events, and even then she couldn't remember a lot of it and was sure that a lot of what her friend told her was made up.

_'I mean really? I can't believe they expected me to believe Tobi was Obito. That's way to obvi-What am I doing? This is not the time to be thinking about that kind of thing! This is serious... though it's... it's kind of funny – I end up in an anime, of all bloody things, and all I want is to go home... though honestly, how else am I supposed to react – of course I want to go home! I love my home, my family and friends; I love my life - why would I want to leave it?'_

If there was any way of her returning home then forget helping Naruto, forget messing around with Sakura, forget annoying Sasuke and forget becoming a ninja. She might have dreamed of it once or twice when she was 13 and struggling to 'fit in', but she wasn't a socially awkward 13-year-old with no friends anymore, she was a 17-year-old with friends who accepted her social ineptness and even liked her more for it. She liked her life - it wasn't perfect, but whose was?

_'What should I do? What should I do?!'_

She could make a run for it – try to escape; but what was the point - where would she go? Plus - they were ninjas, ridiculously fast assassins who had trained their aim since they were at least 6 years old, possibly from an even younger age for those from ninja-families. Running was useless.

She could pretend not to know Japanese, pretend her mother had never her taught her the language of her side of the family. (Olivia's Japanese granddad had married an English woman, Olivia's mother had married a Englishman and Olivia herself lived in england, so she had an english accent; which would make it easier to pretend she didn't know Japanese.) Pretending she didn't understand them might save her – probably not though - knowing her luck, they either would not believe her and check using some technique then kill her for lying, or they would believe her and kill her anyway.

Olivia supposed she may be acting a tad dramatic, but this was one of the 'what else could go wrong moments' after which something even worse happens. She just wanted to be prepared. Until then, she had only one thing she could do...

_'Guess I'll just stay in this corner then.'_

* * *

**Meanwhile~**

The Sandaime groaned at the three teetering stacks of documents, permits and other Hokage-Approval requiring papers that seemed to grow before his very eyes. Paperwork: a never-ending cycle of reading, signing and stamping.

He was convinced his secretary was evil; it was she who brought him the cursed loads after all. Maybe he should have Morino-san check her out. Just to be safe...

The old man chuckled at the thought of Ibiki's lackeys dragging the woman away. Unfortunately, his laughs, small though they were, were enough to send the towering papers flying. There was a brief paper-avalanche, and then he groaned once more at the sight of his floor, which was now covered in the documents.

He needed his pipe, and maybe one of Jiraiya's books...

'_It would seem I am not as young as I used to be.'_ Thought the Hokage as his back began to ache from the continuous movement to pick the papers up. He stood up, using his desk to aid him, and collapsed into his chair. He sighed out of relief, and then looked at a sheet before him.

His relief vanished.

Another request from the Uchiha's for a meeting. It was the last thing he wanted. They would complain and moan, then flatter themselves, then make a few more complaints and perhaps a few accusations.

The Clan, though a source of great credit to Konoha, had never gotten on amazingly well with the rest of the village, at least as far as he could remember. Their pride and tendency to steal other ninjas (including Leaf-nin) jutsu were the two main reasons. The Kyuubi attack had worsened the situation via Konoha's infamous gossip vine, and had spread distrust and suspicion towards the Uchiha clan. This animosity between the clan and the rest of the village was unfortunately accelerated by the clan's seemingly inbred need to grow more powerful.

The need for power seemed to be growing stronger every day, and whilst he was continuously trying to negotiate peacefully, there did not seem to be any change in attitude. Worse still, the clan had lost faith in Itachi – his main source of information. The boy had started acting odd – he started missing clan meetings, and when he did attend them, he would argue against the elders.

When the Sandaime had last seen Itachi, the stress of knowing his clan was possibly planning a coup d'état had shown clearly on his otherwise emotionless face. '_A boy so young should not have to shoulder such circumstance. I fear he may pay the largest price of this mess.'_

Danzo and his old teammates had also taken a keen interest in the ever deteriorating relations with the Uchiha Clan, Danzo especially so in regards to Itachi. Whilst he considered Danzo a friend and knew he was loyal to Konoha, Danzo also shared the Uchiha's desire for power.

_'But Danzo __is__ loyal to Konoha.' _Sarutobi only hoped he genuinely believed it, and wasn't just trying to convince himself.

It was the same with his old teammates, the Village elders and Council members, Koharu and Homura. They too aimed for the good of Konoha, but had a much harsher approach to doing so than him. However the differences between Sarutobi's approach and the approaches of Danzo and the elders was usually harmless, maybe occasionally a bit mean or harsh at times, but certainly not evil. Yet with all three taking so much interest in such a delicate case as that of an uneasy and annoyed Uchiha clan, Sarutobi could not help but worry.

The only plus side to their fixation on the Sharingan-using clan was that they seemed to have lost interest in Naruto.

Aah – Naruto. Already 8 years old and in his 5th year at the academy – how time flies. It seemed like only yesterday Naruto had been four and just beginning the academy.

At the end of his previous year, he had tried the first early graduation exam. He had predictably failed. He would have another chance to graduate early at the end of his 6th year, though Sarutobi doubted he would pass that time either. If Naruto had any chance of passing the Graduation exam, it would be at the end of the eighth and final year, when he turned 12.

If Naruto managed to pass at all – he did like the boy and he had potential, but it would take something miraculous for him to pass even the final exam. Especially if he continued to spend all his time, including lesson time, pranking.

His latest prank had been on a couple of Chūnin. When he was _eventually _caught and brought to him, he had asked the blonde child why he would prank two of the ninja who helped protect the village. Naruto had smiled innocently and said the day before his sensei had told them to practise their trap-making skills. Naruto had also added under his breath that it seemed only fair as those two chūnin often used him for target practise.

The two chūnin were now on a three-year undercover mission in the land of snow. Not that he told Naruto.

He also did not tell Naruto that if he had managed to prank two seasoned chūnin using academy level trap-skills, then either his chūnin were getting lax in their training or Naruto was pretty darn good at making traps.

Even if said traps involved fluorescent pink glue and lime green feathers... and several pounds of glitter. If only Naruto paid such effort to his class work.

The Hokage had now managed to put all the papers into several messy piles. Sitting in his chair, pipe in mouth, he looked at another sheet. It was a document, on a civilian child, Koharuno Kumiko. She was a recently orphaned 10 years old currently living with friends of her father. After the funeral, she had retreated to her new room, and had refused to come out or to talk to anyone. The family with whom she was staying, her late-father's friends, were also distantly related to the Koharunos and were getting concerned, as the child had barely eaten anything for several days.

The document requested a medic be sent to the house to check Kumiko. A reasonable request he supposed, and signed the document before putting it to the side. _'One paper down, one hundred more to go...'_

* * *

**Please review - even if it's just a line. **

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter. By the way – Olivia doesn't know a lot about the Uchiha incident, or rather she doesn't believe most of what she's heard about the details of it. That should make things interesting, no? :D**


	2. First Encounters

**Well I've had loads of views, not so many reviews but *shrug* people are reading my little fanfic - so YAY ^_^**

**Back to school - I'm in year 13 - but that won't stop me writing. I'm taking Maths, Biology and Chemistry, so writing is a welcome break.**

**Edit - 16/11/12  
Going over this as well. Hopefully this is believable.**

**Edit - 3/3/13 Going over this again, more fine-tuning.**

**SPOILERS!(&&^&$::{$&*^!**

* * *

_Recap_

The Hokage had now managed to put all the papers into several messy piles. Sitting in his chair, pipe in mouth, he looked at another sheet. It was a document, on a civilian child, Koharuno Kumiko. She was a recently orphaned 10 years old living with friends of her father. After the funeral, she had retreated to her new room, and had refused to come out or to talk to anyone. The family with whom she was staying, her late-father's friends, were also distantly related to the Koharunos and were getting concerned, as the child had barely eaten anything for several days.

The document requested a medic be sent to the house to check Kumiko. A reasonable request he supposed, and signed the document before putting it to the side. _'One paper down, one hundred more to go...'_

* * *

First Encounters

After what Olivia guessed was an hour and a half of finding herself in an anime, Olivia heard a small knock and a voice come from the unopened door. "Kumiko-chan? Are you awake? You have some visitors." It took Olivia a few moments to understand what she had been told, as she only spoke or was spoken to in Japanese when she went to visit her maternal grandparents.

'_Kumiko? Who's Kumiko? I'm the only one in here – oh hell, they're going to open the door and find me instead of her!' _

Olivia quickly stood up as she looked around startled for somewhere to hide, and then swayed uneasily as something became clear to her. Earlier the shock of the situation must have distracted her, as now Olivia realised something that she really _really_ should have realised earlier.

She was about two feet shorter.

Yeah - _two feet shorter_.

'_What the...'_ Olivia glanced in the mirror by the wardrobe door. Shuffling to the left so she could have a better look at her reflection, her jaw went slack. Instead of a medium height teenager nearing adulthood, there was a short girl facing her, who couldn't be anymore than 10 or 11. Her clothes - oddly enough - were exactly the same; just smaller.

_'Wha... but how... I'm... that's not... this can't. This is not my body! I don't understand... oh... no no no! UGH - but what else could it be?' And why are my clothes the same? Are they trans-dimensional clothes? Ugh - just calm down, think - just think as rationally as you can.'_

Olivia took a deep breath and concluded that, somehow despite how impossible the idea was, she was now this Kumiko person; after all stranger things had happened – like blinking and suddenly being in an anime. "Kumiko-chan?" It was the voice again, a woman's voice.

"Kumiko-chan, I'm coming in." In a way, it had sounded like she hadn't really expected a response in the first place, which was good because Olivia had momentarily forgotten how to speak, whether that be in English or in Japanese The door glided open, revealing two women, one wearing a white oriental-style dress with three red circles and the other a white lab coat over simple clothes. The woman in the dress looked at her cautiously, whilst wearing an overly large, and rather forced looking, smile.

"Hello dear – Akiko-san is here to talk to you about what happened, and to check you're ok, alright? Then," She stepped aside to reveal a small girl previously hidden behind her, "Sakura has made some dango for you."

"Ok" Olivia managed to squeak out, feeling vaguely pleased in a small part of her brain for pronoucing correctly. For a moment, the lady looked shocked - as if her ability to talk was an astonishing feat' - then smiled even wider and gestured for the other two to enter the room.

Akiko walked into the room, quickly followed by Sakura who sat on the edge of the bed, clutching a plate of dango to her. The other woman smiled again. "Well – I'll be downstairs if you need anything." Olivia watched the door shut then turned to look at her two 'guests'. She was very confused, and more than a little shocked at seeing a very young, very pink Sakura sitting in front of her. Why was Olivia in the house of the Harunos? And why had that lady, presumably Sakura's mother, looked so amazed when she spoke? _'Ahhh - what if Kumiko had been a mute! Ehhh... well I supposed they would have reacted more. What is going on?'_

Olivia put her arms around her (now child-like) chest and continued looking expectantly at the woman called Akiko. She in turn looked at her, then pulled a chair from the desk and sat on it, turning it so she faced Olivia, eyes level to her own.

"Erm... _yes_?"

Akiko blinked and wore a rather confused expression on her face, Olivia wondered why before realising her mistake. '_Dammit – I was distracted - I said that in English!' _Olivia coughed awkwardly, before repeating in Japanese.

"Yes?"

"Do you know why I was asked to come, Kumiko-chan?" said Akiko warmly. Olivia shook her head. She had no idea – about anything that was going on. "They're worried about you – you took your parents death very hard – which is of course understandable."

Her parents were dead? Olivia did not know how she felt about that – she had not known them but still a part of her - a part that housed her rather loud conscience, that made her go 'awhh' when she saw a cute baby or kitten, and feel concerned when she heard about a natural disaster affecting places she knew weren't prepared for it - felt saddened by the news. If it had been her actual parents... just the idea made her want to throw up, but considering the circumstances - it probably was a blessing, though thinking of it that way just made her feel even more sick.

Akiko, oblivious to Olivia's nausea, had not finished talking, in what was beginning to sound like a rather patronising voice. As if Olivia was a child.

'_Which I guess I am...' _

"Being upset is natural, but you must remember to look after yourself; Haruno-san has told me you've barely eaten anything since the funeral. It's not healthy – especially for a growing girl like you. She also told me you're in the academy and you're ten, which would put you in the middle of your 7th year, correct?"

Olivia nodded, but had no idea if it was correct or not.

"Well then – you know about chakra; it keeps you alive. You get it from eating food and mixing the physical energy you get from food with spiritual energy from your soul; so when you don't eat enough, you make less chakra, which is _very bad." _Akiko nodded with each overly pronounced word, and Olivia felt more annoyed each passing second of being treated like a child. Akiko stood up and smiled reassuringly at Olivia. "Now – I'm just going to check your vitals and chakra, it won't hurt at all – don't worry." She smiled again.

Akiko checked her heart rate using a stethoscope that had been in one of her coats pockets (Olivia hoped her racing heart was put down to being nervous about talking to a stranger than anything more... elaborate - like reacting to instantaneous trans-dimensional travel), and measured her height and weight – the latter requiring a trip to the ensuite to use the scales. '_Why does Kumiko even have an ensuite?' _Thought Olivia blandly, before Akiko started talking again.

"Ok – that's all good, now your chakra." Akiko reached towards Olivia's sternum, whilst Olivia herself started worrying, all thoughts of mini bathrooms gone.

_'Do I even have chakra? What will they do when they realise I don't have any – will they realise I'm not Kumiko?'_

Akiko placed her right hand squarely on Olivia's pre-pubescent chest and smiled – yet again – at Olivia, who gazed in amazement as Akiko's hand glowed.

"What the..." Olivia glanced up upon hearing those words and saw that Akiko's smile had fallen and had been replaced by a very puzzled look. She moved her hand around Olivia's torso, then along her arms and legs, before placing it on Olivia's head, her expression growing more and more befuddled as time went by. Olivia felt very uncomfortable and glanced at Sakura, who had placed the dango to her side and was now reading a book.

Akiko must have seen Olivia's face, as she had schooled her expression into another smile by the time Olivia had stopped looking at Sakura. "Ok, well – that's it. I leave you to talk to your erm... what was it – third cousin? Fourth? Well – goodbye Kumiko-san." She waved and quickly left Olivia with her apparent relative.

_'That was weird – she acted so odd. Did she realise I don't have chakra? No... She would have freaked out if I had none. Oh – and what had she said about Sakura? My third cousin? I'm related to Sakura? That's so... strange is a word I would use... and I mean really? Really - as if ending up in an anime wasn't good enough, I'm also now related to one of the main characters. This is unbelievable - I'm in an anime, I'm seven years younger and I'm related to a main character. This is kinda getting ridiculous. What next? I bet I'm in the academy... oh wait, according to that lady, I am. Great, brilliant, fan-flipping-tastic. Anything else? Why not give me some random, over-the-top, ridiculous bloodline and complete this mess?' _

Pulling herself from her mental rant, Olivia turned to Sakura, who had stopped reading and was stood holding the plate of dango again, looking just as awkward as Olivia felt.

Sakura was smaller than Olivia was, well smaller than Kumiko, by about half a foot. She had her pink hair – which looked astonishingly odd in person – short with a long fringe covering her forehead. Olivia guessed she hadn't met Ino yet. She opened her mouth to say something to break the silence, but Sakura beat her to it. "I made these for you. I hope you like them and feel better soon." She said, staring at the dango. She had spoken so quickly and so quietly, Olivia had struggled to understand her, but she eventually got the meaning and nodded.

"Thank you, err – Sakura-san." Olivia uneasily put a smile upon her lips, and tried to appear grateful – she was feeling many things – like shock, fear and nausea – but hunger was not one of them. Sakura looked intently at her strange relative for a moment, and then giggled.

"You're so silly cousin." Olivia blinked at the sudden change from shy-Sakura.

"Huh?" was her response.

"Why did you call me Sakura-_san_?"

"Oh – I uh, ok – Sakura... –chan?" Olivia really hated suffixes, or rather she hated the way she always picked the wrong one.

"That's better. Wow, you're so different from how you were when I saw you last summer. Like a different person – but I guess it's to be expected given what happened..." Sakura blushed and looked back at her plate, shy-Sakura back in full-force.

"It's fine." – Because it was, _she _was different. She was Olivia, not Kumiko - though she was never going to tell anyone that particular piece of information.

Sakura gave a smile, and then offered her a stick of dango. Olivia politely accepted it."So Sakura-chan, what do you want to talk about?"

Sakura talked about the academy mostly, and mentioned the bullies before quickly changing the subject but Olivia didn't press it – Ino would sort things out eventually. She also gradually became more confident and animated with her speech, switching from topic to topic nearly faster than Olivia could keep up with.

"Ooh - I remember your tenth birthday party last november - we had a rack of ribs each! Remember?"

"Um, yeah sure. That was... awesome." Olivia was many things, an actress however, Olivia was not.

"Well - your birthday is only a couple of months away... that's something to look forward to..." Sakura sighed at the lameness of her attempts at starting a conversation with her cousin, instead of being the only one talking. She tried again anyway. "Did I tell you - my parents didn't let me take the early graduation exam at the end of my fourth year, even though I said that you took it a couple of years ago when you were my age. You nearly passed it too. That was amazing."

Sakura inwardly hit herself - that was even lamer! Then she remembered something... Sakura looked down for a second, looking fairly nervous. _'What's wrong with her?'_

"Y'know... I, I felt... I _used to feel _rather - well - jealous... that you got to travel... with, with your parents... around the world, trading exotic spices in Suna and... well, I'm-sorry-for-being-jealous!"

'_That was why she was nervous?' _Olivia got the feeling Sakura had wanted to say that for a long time.

_"_Don't worry about it - It's all in the past."

A moment of silence passed over them, Olivia did not particularly mind the silence, but Sakura felt determined to fill it up with talking.

"Um... It was a shame you didn't take the year 6 early exam - you know you would have passed it. Now you have to wait until the end of the year after this one to become a ninja..."

"Yeah - it's... it's a shame..." Oh yes - Olivia definitely regretted not taking acting lessons as a child.

"I mean it! You were so close to passing last time. You got nearly full marks on the theory. Besides it's not like you failed anything - I remember Kaa-san and Tou-san talking about it. They said you had done really well at everything. Well... apart from the clone jutsu... but the they said you just needed to make two instead of one - which will get easier as your chakra reserves grow! Tou-san even said they should have passed you anyway!"

Despite knowing Sakura was talking about Kumiko, not Olivia, she still blushed from the sudden praise. "Err thank you Sakura-chan."

For all Sakura's enthusiasm, Olivia found it a very difficult conversation - hearing all this information and praying that she would remember it. It didn't help that Sakura started speaking very quickly at times; making it very hard to understand what she was saying and even harder to respond. As well as the fact she changed subjects constantly; like she didn't talk to people her age a lot.

_'Which, of course, will change once Ino becomes her friends.'_

"Well, I'll take this plate to the kitchen. You wanna come?" Sakura walked to the door, holding the now empty plate. Sakura made good dango, Olivia decided.

"No, thank you, but I would like to be alone for a while now, please." Sakura nodded and went. Olivia sat on the bed, deep in thought. Kumiko attended the academy. She was reasonably good, especially in regards to the knowledge section. That was going to make things tricky.

'_I don't want to be a ninja, and they'll know something's up if I, well if Kumiko suddenly doesn't have any skills or knowledge at all. I could tell them I've changed my mind or something – they hopefully will assume it's due to my parents' death and I'll be able to avoid ninja-training. Yeah – that's what I'll do, and if they don't believe me... well I'll think of something.' _Absent-mindedly nodding, Olivia closed her eyes and tried to calm her turbulent mind.

_'Why has this happened?' _She thought, before bursting into quiet sobs. _'Ugh, I'm such a crybaby... I haven't even been gone that long, and I'm already acting like this...'_

People cry for many reasons; when you're upset, when you're overly happy, when you're feeling melancholy, when you're hormonal and more. Tears come in different ways - a sharp, short burst, rivers and streams, or ones that never leave your eye, instead clinging to them, blurring the person's vision.

In Olivia's case, it was a sudden event that was over nearly as quickly as it had begun. The tears weren't out of sadness - it was too early for that - these were stressful tears; fearful, uncomfortable tears than Olivia needed to let out so she could move on.

* * *

**Yay -chapter published :) Hope you liked it.**

**In regards to Olivia's not becoming a ninja: She will not be a ninja, ****- however she will, despite her planning to not do so, attend the academy. She just won't pass the secondary graduation test - the one the jounin sensei does - I do have something else planned for her though - something ninja-ish ;)**

**Please review :3**


	3. Interactions

**Yeah - it 's been ages since I updated. I had a load of life come round and smack me round the face, but excuses excuses. Not much is happening currently, but once Naruto gets in the picture things should start getting interesting.**

**Enjoy the chapter :)**

**4/3/13-Quick spelling error recheck and small changes :3**

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Interactions

"I've never seen anything like it… I sensed that the girl had low chakra levels as soon as I entered the room, but when I started scanning…" Akiko paused again and shook her head, trying to collect her thoughts. Though she had tried not to let it show at the Haruno House, the experience had left her quite shaken. The girl should be in a coma, if not dead!

"She had the tiniest amount of chakra – barely even present; as if the only chakra she had in her body came not from her, but from only the surrounding environment – like breathing in the chakra-dense air of the village."

The Sandaime's eyebrows rose. He had expected a simple report, not this revelation. "How would you explain this… odd occurrence Akiko-san?"

The medic frowned, and then replied uneasily, not quite believing what she said.

"I suppose a genetic defect could have caused it, or something along those lines. The Koharunos, and indeed the Harunos, are civilian families, and have naturally low chakra reserves in the first place. Put that with the stress of the past few weeks, her lack of appetite and a possible genetic defect and I suppose her minimal amount of chakra could be explained."

Sarutobi looked at the woman before him. It was obvious she did not know what to believe – including that which she was saying – but what alternative explanation was there? No-one was born with no chakra, damaged chakra systems occasionally, but never no chakra.

The only rational explanation was that she had been born with a tiny amount of chakra, which had been overlooked by most likely civilian-midwives. She had managed to adapt to having barely any chakra, but recent events had taken its toll on her reserves, but as the child was used to having low levels of chakra, there had been no outward signs.

He concluded that was the only reasonable explanation.

* * *

Olivia was sat on her bed, deep in thought - now much calmer after finishing crying. She was, somehow, a Leaf villager. She was an orphan, and related to the Harunos. She attended the academy, but planned on getting out of it. She had no idea on how to return home. She was also seven years younger - aged now a fantastic solitary decade.

_'Brilliant…' _She sighed, '_Koharuno Kumiko… Kumiko…. That's gonna take some getting used to.'_

She tentatively walked to the mirror, her abrupt height change still causing her some difficultly, especially as she was now so aware of it.

'_Well duh – I'm two feet shorter!'_

In some ways she looked very similar to how she had when she was younger. Same shape eyes, nose, jaw and general build - skinny with an 'adorable' chubby cheeked face, but there _were_ differences. Olivia had dark grey-blue eyes – a gift from her Caucasian father – which looked striking against her dark hair and faintly tanned skin. Kumiko had dark mossy green eyes that complimented her comparatively light brown hair and light olive skin.

Olivia thought, slightly annoyed, she looked like a duller version of Sakura.

_Gurgle Gurgle_

For a split-second, Olivia felt a twinge of fear in her heart at the sudden sound in what had previously been a very silent room. She then felt incredibly foolish and silly, as she realised it had been her stomach. The dango had apparently awoken her appetite. Olivia glanced at the door that led out to the landing. She stepped towards it, and then took two steps back before again taking a step forward.

'_Stop acting like such a coward! You're in a civilian house. You're hungry. There is no reason for you not to go downstairs right now and ask for some food. You – thankfully – did not end up in Oliver Twist. They'll give you food if you ask for some – Kumiko hasn't eaten properly for days; they'll be happy to feed you.'_

Olivia slowly took a step towards the door, but the sudden creak of the wood beneath her tiny foot erased the previous confidence the 'pep-talk' had given her. She gulped.

'_Go on…' _She took a deep breath, held it, slid open the door and half-walked half-ran out on to the landing, turned widely to find the stairs, ran down them way too quickly which resulted in her falling down them, arms floundering about uselessly, breath leaving her lungs in a squeal. Dazed, Olivia watched from her spot on the floor as Sakura and her mother ran in from, what looked like from Olivia's worms' eye view, the kitchen.

"Kumiko? Are you alright? What happened?"

"Err… I am… good. I urm, fell down the ladder – I mean stairs!" Olivia spoke at first very slowly and quietly – still unused to speaking the language of her mother's father – before blurting out her correction very loudly. Sakura's mother looked a little taken aback, whereas Sakura herself giggled. Olivia blushed faintly, before blushing a much darker colour when her stomach let out another loud gurgle.

Both Sakura and her mother giggled this time. Carefully, as if the girl in question was made of glass, Mebuki lifted Olivia back on to her feet. "Let's get you something to eat, ok?" She lightly stroked Olivia's forehead, moving a few strand of hair out the way. As Olivia nodded to the idea of food, the lady noticed a bruise forming on her forehead.

"Oh – you poor dear! You hurt your head. Let me kiss it better." Needless to say, Olivia felt incredibly uncomfortable as she was kissed on the forehead by a nearly complete stranger.

"Urm thank you but I am fine. Very fine." She inwardly cringed at the poor grammar – her grandad would be horrified (even more so at being called Granddad instead of Ojiichan) – before continuing. "It doesn't even hurt Haruno-san."

Mebuki smiled at this, a real smile without any strain or worry. "Obasan, Kumiko-chan, call me Obasan. We are family – even more so now." Her last comment made her mouth tighten, still wary of even implying what happened with her parents, especially now that Kumiko seemed to have regained some life.

'_Oh... Ok – Obasan it is.' _

"Ok Obasan."

* * *

"Sakura, do you have all your stuff ready for the academy tomorrow – did you finish your homework?" asked Mebuki in a no-nonsense tone as Sakura and Olivia ate their freshly made snack.

"Yeah – it was easy; I had to write a paragraph on hand signs." Mebuki nodded, and then turned to Kumiko, yet again smiling a little too forcefully.

"Kumiko-chan – do you think you could manage to go to the academy tomorrow, even just to try? It might be a good distraction. Sitting in your room all day cannot be good for you." Not that the medic had offered her any advice on the matter – she had left with barely a word.

_'Ah – my chance. Ok, you can do this. You may suck at acting, you may suck at lying, but you can do this... somehow.'_ Olivia shuffled her feet and looked at them.

"I don't want to be a ninja anymore."

"Huh?" Sakura stared at her cousin confused – had not they just spent all the time upstairs talking about how good Kumiko was at the academy? Even Mebuki looked surprised.

"Why not?"

'_Um... ok, ok – why, why... I probably should have thought this through... err quickly – avoidance, dodging, fear... afraid – yeah!'_

Olivia gazed up at Mebuki, eyes wide and glistening. "I am afraid! I, I – I do not want to go. Please don't make me leave."

_'Damn – I meant go, not leave. Oh well, it shouldn't make that much difference.'_

Mebuki looked down at the tearful face of her distant niece. "Awh – there is no need to be afraid; that's why you go to the academy; so you become big and strong, and don't have to be afraid anymore."

_'Frick, I spoke too soon – now she thinks I'm afraid of leaving the house or something along those lines. Dammit.' _Olivia thought angrily, though she managed not let the anger show on her face. Meanwhile, Mebuki kneeled in front of her.

"Where is the girl who said she was not afraid of anything? Where is that brave, _brave_ future ninja of the leaf? Hm?"

_'Probably back... in... my world... HOLY SHIIIIIIII – I completely, I didn't, it didn't... what if Kumiko of this world is in my world... in my body... not knowing English at all... oh no – this could – ack! She's waiting for a response.'_

"Um... here?"

"Good girl and where is the girl who swore she would become that brave ninja, no matter what?"

"Here..."

"And who is going to the academy with Sakura tomorrow?"

_'Hey! That's not fair!'_

Pouting, Olivia gave in, "Me."

"Well done." Patting Olivia's head, Mebuki stood up and smiled a little too smugly for Olivia's liking.

_'Well that failed... Frickin' heck."_

After a few moments of awkward silence, Olivia excused herself and returned to her room, which took a few minutes more than expected as she could not remember which door led to her room. Once the door was shut, Olivia flew to the bookcase. Grabbing anything that looked vaguely ninja-related or was a scroll and dumping them on her bed, she soon did the same with the desk.

She looked at her western style bed, now covered with scrolls and books. There were a lot of them. It was 5pm and she had until 8am to cram as much ninja-related knowledge as possible into her head. 15 hours never sounded so small an amount of time.

_'Ok - what do we have here?'_ She picked up the first book she saw, glanced over the title and realised something; it was in Japanese.

Proper Japanese - as in Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Not Romaji.

She had learnt how to read and write the different forms of the Japanese written language throughout her life. She could read and write in romaji as easily as she could english (as she read romaji-written stories plenty, and used it whenever she wrote to her cousins), and was pretty decent with katakana as well, as it was mainly used for foreign words. It was the other two forms she found tricky, though admittedly - and thankfully - she could read hiragana better than kanji, but she possessed no talent for either; she just didn't use the skills enough.

It wasn't all bad news - she could read it, and Olivia could see a Hiragana-Kanji dictionary poking out from under the desk - she wondered if it had been dropped when they had moved Kumiko to here. From what she could see - the cleanness, tidiness and other things - the room didn't look overly lived in; a guest room Olivia supposed. Olivia slowly went and got the dictionary - constantly expecting to hit her head - and noted it seemed well used. Unlike her own English-Romaji-Hirigana-Kanji dictionary back home - which was only used once a year when she went to visit her mother's side of the family, and when one of her cousins - specifically Shunsuke - decided to write in Kanji. Though that was probably due to Olivia pointing out the _uke _in his name...

She looked at the clock. 5:02. _'Dammit. I need to get to work'_

She looked back at the book. '_Ok! What do I have here? That's erm - Basic... and that's ah! Yes - Ninja. Ok, good and that says... History. Basic ninja history. Ha! That was easy.' _

She looked back at the clock. 5:05.

She twitched. Three minutes to read three words? It had not felt like three minutes - hadn't felt like even one.

'_Damn - I don't think I'm going to bed early tonight.'_

* * *

**Well - that's the fourth chapter. Hope you liked it. Please review/follow/fav :)**

**Next time - Olivia attends the academy. **


	4. First Technique

**Wow - over 4000 words; longest chapter ever ^^ **

**Sorry for the delay - I moved house and have been without internet since late November - it has been torture. Pity me :3**

**Anyway - here it is...**

**Edit: 08/02/2013 - I found a plot hole - if Kumiko took the graduation exam early, she would already be expected to know the substitution jutsu. I'll try and fix it :)**

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_Recap_

She looked back at the book. '_Ok! What do I have here? That's erm - Basic... and that's ah! Yes - Ninja. Ok, good and that says... History. Basic ninja history. Ha! That was easy.' _

She looked back at the clock. 5:05.

She twitched. Three minutes to read three words? It had not felt like three minutes - hadn't felt like even one.

'_Damn - I don't think I'm going to bed early tonight.'_

* * *

First Technique

Olivia slowly trudged after Sakura through the busy, bustling streets of Konoha. She felt awful; she had not gotten to sleep until four in the morning and now had a massive headache. As well as that, she also was feeling rather depressed; she had woken up happy – reminiscing about a crazy dream in which she was a walking cliché – but the happy mood had nose-dived once she had opened her eyes. She had nearly broken down twice already, once in the shower and again as she had sleepily toddled downstairs. Currently, Olivia felt like she was about to make it thrice. Everywhere she looked, there were parents and children. Mothers holding on to bickering sons, fathers giving piggybacks to bubbly daughters. As Olivia continued down the street – too caught up in her thoughts even to attempt to memorise the route - the image of her mum suddenly flashed in her eyes; a random memory of her mother laughing at her daughter's antics.

Her eyes began to sting, followed then by nausea as the mere possibility of Kumiko being in Olivia's body back in her world crept into her mind. The thought filled her and coiled around her heart where it met another feeling. A feeling of yearning, wishing, longing– for a hug from her mum, a joke from her dad... for her family, her friends and her general world. It nearly made her sob, but she steeled herself. She hadn't been gone that long; it wasn't homesickness - that would come later. It was something else, something she refused to let herself even think, because that would make it true.

No - she refused to accept it, and she didn't have time to cry, she needed to find her feet in this world. The sooner she did that, the sooner she could start planning on how to return home. '_After all, if people can control the elements here, then sending me back home shouldn't be too impossible.'_ A tiny bit of hope blossomed in her chest, and for a moment she felt a little better.

However, when Olivia saw they had arrived at the academy, the feeling rotted there and then. They had arrived.

"Oh..." Olivia's words were lost as she took in the sight before her – there were nearly a hundred children around her, most of which were accompanied by at least one parent. It was so loud - she didn't know what they were saying, (her Japanese was still rather rusty) but it still overwhelmed her senses, and made her headache increase to near-migraine level.

"Are you ok?" A hand touched her shoulder as she heard a small voice beside her. Opening eyes she did not recall closing, she turned to look at Sakura – who was looking worriedly at her relative.

"Yes... Thanks." Olivia offered a small smile. "How are you?"

"I'm good – I-" Sakura trailed off as something caught her eye behind Olivia. Turning around she noticed a few girls smirking and sneering at her – or more likely she realised – at Sakura. The pinkette in question looked very upset – like she was regretting even waking up. The girls looked around eleven/twelve. For an eight-year-old kid, they may have seemed very old and strong. However, Olivia was not eight, she was a seventeen year old (in a ten year olds body) and she knew exactly what they were:

_'Pathetic little bullies.' _Olivia pulled a sneer, and glared at the girls. They looked a bit shocked, and then glanced at each other before glaring back at Olivia. Lunging towards them, fist slightly pulled back as if to punch the closest one, Olivia chuckled as the girls ran off. She looked back at Sakura, who was staring at her as if she was a kami.

For a moment Olivia felt sad – why hadn't Kumiko helped her little cousin before? Were they not close? In fact – Olivia had never even heard of Sakura having a relative other than her parents in the anime. _'Well regardless – I'm here, not her. Ino should sort things out eventually, but for now I'll do what I can.'_

"Remember Sakura-chan; to be a bully, you have to be a coward first. Just ignore them; they aren't worth your time." It sounded pretty cool in her head, though the sentence was stilted as she spoke it in her second, less-used tongue. Nonetheless, it seemed to get the message across because Sakura's eyes widened as she listened to her words.

"But they're – they're year eights! They're nearly twelve – and they're so strong and-"

"I don't care. They give you any trouble; you tell me." Not that Olivia would know exactly what to do, but regardless of that it seemed to do the trick.

Sakura nodded, a smile forming on her face. Just then, they were called in and a swarm of children ran past her to the academy doors. Suddenly, Olivia swore mentally – she had no idea where to go, who her teacher was or who her friends were. She glanced around – hoping she might catch the eyes of one of Kumiko's friends, but it proved fruitless and worse still Sakura had gone too.

There was only one thing for it, Olivia decided as she formed a little plan.

'_Time to use my 'amazing' acting skills.' _

Slowly walking into the academy, tripping slightly as she misjudged the height of a step, she sat crouched in a hallway and waited. Arms wrapped arouds her knees – a position she had taken just yesterday – and face glum with bags under her eyes, she looked like a perfect poster orphan.

After about twenty minutes, a man walked down the hallway looking intently at some paperwork. He was wearing the blue and green ninja-garb, including a headband. He also looked very familiar – she knew she had seen that scar across his nose before. _'Il-no, Ira-no, um Iruno... Iru...IRUKA! That's it! Can't believe I forgot.' _As she quickly made herself look as sad and pitiful as she could, Iruka finally noticed her.

"Hey – shouldn't you be in class?" He said, in a kind but authoritative tone.

Olivia gazed at him, eyes wide then nodded.

"Then why aren't you?"

She shrugged.

Iruka's eyebrow twitched. "Who are you? What's your name?"

In a small, gloomy voice, Olivia answered. "Kumiko, Koharuno Kumiko."

"Koharuno Kumiko... Koharuno..." Iruka stood in thought for a moment, and then a look of realisation dawned upon him. "Ah – I see." He slid down next to the girl – his class could wait a few more minutes, as long as Naruto and the rest of the more rambunctious kids didn't get... creative in his absence.

"It gets easier, you know, the pain. Eventually, you'll be able to think of them and smile."

'_Oh yeah – Iruka's parents died in the Kyuubi attack. I wonder if I... if I'm not able to, to return home, if it will get easier to accept this place... No – I'll never stop wanting to go home. This will never be my home. Never...'_

They sat in silence for a few moments - which greatly helped her headache - before Olivia decided to speak up. "How long... did it take for you to, um – move on?"

Iruka thought, and then answered carefully. "A while – the Hokage helped me a lot, but it took a few years before I – as you said – moved on and accepted their deaths."

They returned to silence for a few moments more.

"Ok – come on, let's get you to class. I'm sure Shoumaru-san is wondering where you are."

They walked down the rest of the hallway and turned left then right before coming to a door labelled **7 A**. Iruka turned to her and smiled encouragingly. "Keep your chin up and work hard – ok? Make your parents proud. I know it is tough – but the best thing to do right now is to distract yourself. Pick something to work towards – whether it be Hokage or teacher, medic or even the everyday ninja – and throw yourself into it."

_'He's probably thinking of what he was like in his academy years – he was a class joker if I remember correctly.'_

Smiling lightly, Olivia nodded.

Iruka returned the smile, then knocked on the door.

At the "Come in," he opened the door and smiled friendly at the chūnin inside, who was writing something on the blackboard. Olivia was pleased to realise that she could read it – despite being in hiragana – easily.

**The Substitution Jutsu.**

The late-night reading session had paid off in more than one way, it seemed.

Shoumaru was a man in his late fifties with kind eyes and smile lines, wearing blue ninja garb with a headband, but no flak jacket – which led Olivia to assume, with his age in mind, that he was a retired ninja. "Ahh – Kumiko-chan. You've come back to us. That's good, that's very good – we've missed you this past fortnight."

Fiddling with her plain blue top – the first one she had touched when she had opened the wardrobe this morning – she smiled lightly as she walked into the class. "Kon'nichiwa, Shoumaru-sensei."

At this, the man smiled broader. "Come come – sit down Kumiko-chan." A few girls smiling widely gestured to her to sit next to them.

"Thank you Iruka-sensei, for helping me and talking with me." Iruka smiled, then waved goodbye and left.

_'Yes! Plan succeeded.' _Olivia thought, pleased as she walked down to the girls.'_ I know my classroom, my teacher and who I assume are my friends. And – medic, now that's a good idea. In case... well just in case.'_

"Ok now class, we're going to look at the substitution jutsu." He circled what he had previously written on the board.

"Err – Suiko-chan, please hand out the books and hmmm - Sanma-kun, please give out the pens. Remember class to write neatly. Messy handwriting can result in big mishaps in the Mission Room. Tell me – what's the story? Um – Kumiko-chan?" Shoumaru smiled and gestured to her.

Olivia of course had no idea. She opened her mouth, meaning to admit she did not know, but all that came out was a squeak. Olivia felt herself flush as everyone's eyes trained on her. Thankfully, Shoumaru was a nice man, and quickly picked another student.

"Tsuba-kun, help Kumiko-chan out."

A boy with spiky black hair stood up, and started to speak. "In the Third Shinobi War, a ninja wrote a near illegible mission report. As a result, time-sensitive material in the report was not read immediately. In fact, by the time the report had been deciphered, the material was useless. It is estimated that, because of this case, the deaths of five genin and two chūnin were directly caused." Olivia stared at the boy intently, not due to the story – though she paid close attention to that too – but because of the symbol on his back. A large Uchiha crest.

_'The clan's still alive! Huh – but if Sakura's eight, then so is Sasuke and I **know** the clan was massacred when he was eight. I'm positive. Which means –' _Olivia's thoughts trailed off as she realised the boy in front of her had his days most likely numbered. That alone made her headache, which had been feeling a lot better, reappear.

Olivia's attention was drawn off the boy's back as he sat down and her sensei stood up, looking suddenly rather sombre. "Five genin and two chūnin, correct Tsuba-kun. Hyūga Ikko, Aburame Cho, Fumie Akera, Inuzuka Futabatei, Sumie Fujiwara, Kasuga Gendaru and Kaoru Mifune. You'll find their names on the memorial stone. They were all aged between fifteen and ten years of age. Ten – same as you. They died – they were ambushed, an ambush that one of our ninja had found out about two days before hand. He had written it in his mission report, but his handwriting had been so bad... their teams had been sent out before it had been deciphered. Such a small thing – bad handwriting, but it cost seven people their lives. I know I say this story a lot; but that is only because it is true. In fact – here is something I have never told you before. It was _my_ mission report, with _my_ messy handwriting. It was _my_ mistake – _my_ error. And now – you know it's true."

He paused for a moment, then gestured to two children to carry out their tasks, and resumed teaching. With heavy hearts, the children listened to their sensei.

When Olivia got her book, she quickly flipped through – to see how Kumiko had worked; handwriting, language skills etc.

_'Ok – here we go, let's have a look.'_

Perfectly neat handwriting.

No spelling errors.

Notes upon notes – even footnotes.

Ticks, smiley faces and 'full marks' all over the place.

Olivia, with great difficulty, resisted the urge to facepalm.

* * *

"Now - those who have taken the early graduation exams will be familiar with this jutsu, however - you will still be expected to relearn and practise the technique." He glanced at a few of his students, including the Uchiha and Kumiko, before continuing.

'_Oh yeah! Dammit - I forgot - Sakura said I had nearly graduated before... great - more pressure.'_

"The Substitution Jutsu, also known as the Replacement Jutsu, is one of the most basic jutsu in a ninja's arsenal, and yet it is one of the most useful. It-"

"What? No way Sensei?" yelled a boy a few spaces from Olivia. Shoumaru smiled slightly, and then asked him why he disagreed so strongly that he would 'dare to interrupt his beloved, ingenious and dashingly handsome sensei.' The boy in question, who Shoumaru had called 'Kao-kun', mumbled a half-hearted apology. "Sorry Shoumaru-sensei, but there are way cooler jutsu than that one – like ones that make things explode or... catch fire or..."

"And yet," Shoumaru cut in, "the substitution jutsu is used, on average, six times on every combat-based mission; it is used by genin, chūnin, jounin –even by the ANBU. Now - here are the signs; follow me. Ram → Boar → Ox → Dog → Snake. Again - Ram → Boar → Ox → Dog → Snake. Good - very good Kaori, why don't you help Kumiko - she looks a little lost."

The girl beside Olivia turned to her smiling. "Hey Kumi-chan, you better? It's so sad... I mean with what happened -"

"I said help not chat." Shoumaru said, chuckling when Kaori's face blushed.

"Yes, sensei." She smiled again, then showed Olivia the signs which Olivia, with no small about of difficulty, copied. Her trouble did not go unnoticed.

"It's been really tough on you, hasn't it? I mean -_ Koharuno Kumiko_? Needing help? I've seen you do this jutsu before..."

Seeing Kumiko's expression, she quickly added, "Don't worry - you'll catch up in no time!"

"Yeah - right." Olivia replied awkwardly. She didn't know what else to say, but thankfully Shoumaru started talking again.

"The Jutsu is used to very quickly replace your body with another object, like a log. It uses only a little chakra, but as I have said - is an incredibly useful technique. Any questions?"

Nervously, Olivia raised her arm. She may not be overly happy with being in this world, but she was definitely getting curious. Shoumaru gestured for her to ask her question. "Um, well - I was wondering - if you could replace objects with other objects...?"

Shoumaru's eyebrows rose at the unexpected question. "Well - I've never thought about it. Hmm - yes, yes I suppose it would be possible - though you would need very good chakra control - any other questions?"

Unable to contain her intrigue, Olivia's hand rose again and Shoumaru chuckled. "Yes Kumiko-chan?"

"What about replacing an object with a person other than yourself?" This time, Shoumaru looked well and truly baffled.

"Wow - an excellent question. I suppose again - it would be possible, but it would probably need near enough perfect chakra control - and I guess the question is; what would you use it for? All right - any other questions? No – okay everyone line up down the middle and when it gets to your turn – substitute yourself with this stool." He put the stool, which previously had been used as a place to stack student worksheets, about two feet from the beginning of the line. "I want everyone to stand two spaces behind the person at the front – don't distract them. Now – begin."

_'Wha – what? What what? Begin – we're doing it now? Right now – a jutsu? An actual jutsu - with chakra - in front of everyone? Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, ohmygoshohmygossssshhhhhhhh-'_

"Come on Kumi!" Chirped Kaori, who had already stood up, a couple of other girls next to her. Olivia smiled, trying to cover up her nerves. She did not want to be a ninja - but she did not want to be humiliated by her lack of ninja-skills either. She cringed inwardly at the idea of everyone laughing at her as she made her way to stand with Kumiko's friends. Kaori was the one hazel eyes and long raven locks in pigtails, whereas the other two girls had dark blue eyes with brown and dark blonde hair respectively, worn down and cut short.

Kaori smiled with warm eyes as she moved to stand next to Olivia. "Ok - Sango, Maka - would you mind going first - I think Kumi's a bit nervous." She said, good naturedly to the other two girls. The blonde smiled and replied. "Sure, no problem. Right Sango?"

The other girl, presumedly Sango smiled at Olivia, which seemed to Olivia to be the only thing people had done to her since she had arrived, and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Kumi-chan, you'll be fine. You don't always have to get it right first time round - we never do. You'll be back to your old amazing self in no time!" She added with a wink.

"Thanks."

Olivia was even more relieved to find how right Sango had been; most of her fellow classmates failed; in fact – there was only one person who had been successful so far. The person in question was, of course, the Uchiha. _'Figures...'_

As each person tried, and failed, Shoumaru would give them some advice:

"Use more chakra – you're _so_ close"

"You're sending the chakra all over the place – visualise replacing the stool in your mind's eye"

"Woah – calm down Kao-kun, you're using too much chakra"

"Suiko-chan – you aren't actually using chakra. Do the signs, now feel that – the energy – just below your heart? Feel that? That's the chakra. Imagine it like this – you're using handsigns to summon the chakra from within you, then you're controlling it and putting it where it needs to go and finally - you're using the words to activate the chakra. Understand?"

From Olivia's position, she could see the girl nod. "Substitution Jutsu!" There was a big puff of smoke that, when it had cleared, revealed that the girl and the stool had swapped places.

"Well done Suiko-chan, well done! You used a little bit too much chakra – but nonetheless you did it – well done." Suiko skipped back to her chair, beaming from ear to ear as she became the second person to be successful.

The rest of the children in front of her, including Kaori, Maka and Sango, each had a turn, failed each time and were given appropriate advice. Then, it was Olivia's turn. She gulped, and slowly stepped forward. Shoumaru smiled encouragingly.

_'Ok - handsigns; check. Wait – wow! Oh my – I can feel it, I actually can – oh my goodness! Chakra – it's so warm. Wow – wait, don't lose concentration; now – I need to surround my body with it, create a little bridge to the stool, and then surround the stool. Ok, did I get everything – oops no - missed my toes.'_

Olivia imagined her body and the stool, and summoning her chakra, imagined wrapping it around her body, then pulling a thin stream to the stool before covering it also. It was incredibly difficult, the chakra felt like a gas, but heavy like water – it wouldn't stay still and kept resisting the movement. Eventually, Olivia decided she had done as much as she could. Taking a deep breath, she spoke whilst imagining her body swapping places with the stool.

"Substitution Jutsu."

There was a puff, and Olivia's perspective changed as she took the stool's previous position. It had been an odd experience; as if she hadn't been in control of her body. _'__I should do some research on this later. I bet it's not as simple as it seems.'_

"Well done, Kumiko-chan – perfect!" Shoumaru looked pleasantly surprised and was grinning broadly at her, she was about to grin back in amazement and delight, when she suddenly found it hard to breathe, and her head felt like someone had previously hit it repeatedly with a wok, and then numbed it so all that was left was a dull ache and a jumbled up brain. Her eyelids felt heavy and her arms like lead. Her knees gave way and she landed on the floor in a flop. Shoumaru practically leapt towards her, but she barely noticed; she was so tired – so incredibly tired.

She blinked, and when she eventually opened her eyes, she was lying on the floor in a more comfortable position, and a rather blurry Shoumaru was yelling something at her.

She felt confused, _'Why is he yelling at me – and why am I so tired. Ow - my head! Where did this headache come from? Why is everything so heavy? Why? I don't...Why is he still yelling? What's he saying? Ku-mi-ko, Kumiko, who is that? Who – oh... that's me. Sorta...'_

Before losing consciousness, Olivia also vaguely realised that she could no longer feel her chakra.

* * *

"-Miko? Kumiko? Can you hear me?" Olivia slowly took in her surrounding as she opened her eyes. She felt groggy and exhausted, but much better than she had previously – and, after she had concentrated, she found she could feel her chakra again, though it did feel smaller.

_'Is this... chakra exhaustion?'_

"Kumiko-chan - can you hear me? Look at me." A woman, Akiko she noted, was crouched in front of her – chakra infused hand over Olivia's heart, whilst she sat slumped against the wall with Shoumaru holding her upright.

"Yes – I can hear you, I'm fine." Olivia wearily looked into Akiko's brown eyes. "What happened? Why are you here Akiko-san?"

Akiko smiled, though it did not reach her eyes. She had given the same smile to Olivia after checking her chakra reserves the day before. "I work as the school medic every other day. You fainted after the jutsu because your chakra reserves are so tiny. We're going to take you to the hospital for a few more tests. We'll meet your aunt and uncle there, and explain things more then – ok?"

Olivia nodded, but she felt quite nervous about the trip – what if something happened? What if they realised she wasn't Kumiko – or even just became suspicious? Sadly – there was nothing for it; she had no excuse not to go.

Akiko helped her stand and held her steady as she nearly toppled again. "Don't worry Kumiko-chan, you'll be fine." Olivia smiled weakly – she was starting to feel sick.

"Let's hope tomorrow you have better luck, eh – Kumiko-chan?" Shoumaru said, smiling as usual.

"Bye Shoumaru-sensei." And with that, Akiko and Olivia left the room. As they walked, the bell rang and break began. Children ran past her, jostling her about as they hurried outside to play. She held onto Akiko tightly – not wanting to fall and be stomped on. Thankfully, the crowds of children rushing past her began to gradually thin, and Olivia had just started to release her tight grip on Akiko's sleeve when a boy ran into her so hard, that she fell out of Akiko's grasp and onto the floor.

"Ah! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to – I swear!" Olivia looked up at the boy who had run into her, and instantly recognised him. Naruto – a rather skinny, wide-eyed boy with messy blond hair – was looking sheepishly down at her and poignantly ignoring the vicious glare Akiko was giving him.

"How dare you-" Akiko began, but Olivia automatically cut her off.

"It's fine – no harm done." She smiled warmly at the boy, who looked amazed for a moment then positively beamed back at her.

"No – it was my fault. Sorry." Naruto gave her a hand standing up, then – after catching Akiko's expression – waved goodbye.

"Well – it's break. So – bye!" Olivia waved back as he ran ahead, and turned to face a stern looking Akiko.

"Kumiko – are you friends with that... boy?" She spat the last word at her mouth as if she wanted very much to say another, harsher word.

"No – but would that matter?" Olivia answered, faux-innocently.

"No... But," She picked her words carefully, glancing around the hallway. Olivia wondered for a moment if she was going to 'reveal' the big secret. Of course, she didn't. "-the boy... isn't safe. He isn't, he isn't... good company. He's bad news – trouble."

Tilting her head to the side, Olivia asked, "But – he's just a little kid."

"Ah –" Akiko cut herself off, and smeared a fake smile upon her face. "Of course, of course. Now – let's get you to the hospital, right Kumiko-chan?"

"Right."

* * *

**Well that's it so far... Please review etc... :)**


	5. Conversations

**Finally - chapter 6. Have to say this chapter didn't turn out how it expected it, but I think it works. Maybe someone could review and tell me - hint hint nudge nudge ;) **

**This chapter's a wee bit late, not that I'm on a schedule but I was hoping to post this earlier. However - I have five lovely exams, and lots a revision - so yerp :D Here it is... Dun dun d'dun dunnn!**

**Edit: 01/02/13 - I didn't like the way it ended, so I added a preview :)**

**Edit: 08/02/2013 - fixing plot hole carried on from chapter five :)**

* * *

_Recap_

"Kumiko – are you friends with that... boy?" She spat the last word at her mouth as if she wanted very much to say another, harsher word.

"No – but would that matter?" Olivia answered, faux-innocently.

"No... But," She picked her words carefully, glancing around the hallway. Olivia wondered for a moment if she was going to 'reveal' the big secret. Of course, she didn't. "-the boy... isn't safe. He isn't, he isn't... good company. He's bad news – trouble."

Tilting her head to the side, Olivia asked, "But – he's just a little kid."

"Ah –" Akiko cut herself off, and smeared a fake smile upon her face. "Of course, of course. Now – let's get you to the hospital, right Kumiko-chan?"

"Right."

* * *

Conversations

"Is Kumiko-chan alright? What's going on?" Kizashi asked Akiko as he sat down next to Olivia, and then started worriedly patting her hair. From Olivia's left, Mebuki nodded as she added, "Yes, what _is_ going on – yesterday you left without a word, as if nothing was wrong, yet now we are here being told Kumiko collapsed during the academy. It's not on!"

Olivia, Kizashi – Sakura's father – and Mebuki were sat opposite Akiko, who was sat behind her desk, in Akiko's hospital office, the place where Olivia had had to sit for an hour whilst she waited for her 'relatives' to arrive. When she had first arrived, Akiko had checked her chakra and had taken some blood samples and stuff, but after that - and after giving her some painkillers for her head-, Olivia had been taken to the office to wait. It had been incredibly boring and after ten minutes of Akiko, who refused to tell her anything, Olivia had resigned herself to reading a random article in a magazine Akiko had handed her. The article had been titled** Toe Hygiene – Protects those toes! **– An important article, Olivia supposed, in a village where most people wore open toed sandals. Not that it made the article any less dull.

"I'm sorry – but I thought everything was fine… mostly… it's hard to explain. It was confusing yesterday – I'm sorry I left so abruptly, but I went to discuss my findings with the Hokage himself. I was planning to tell you everything - I even had a letter ready –"Akiko pulled a letter from a desk drawer and handed it to them before returning to looking at her lap, head bowed in shame. "- but before I had a chance to even send it to you, I was called from my office in the academy to Kumiko-san's classroom. I'm so very sorry!" Akiko stood and bowed low, looking and sounding as if she was apologising for a huge crime – very different to how she had acted earlier with Naruto.

Olivia really did not see what the big deal was – hadn't she just fainted? When she said as much, Akiko sat back down and stared at her for a moment, clearly worried about what she should tell her. After enough time had passed, Mebuki barked, her motherly protectiveness over the new addition to her small family sparking in her eyes, "Well – out with it! What happened?"

The poor medic took a deep breath. "The first time I checked Kumiko-san's chakra reserves, they were tiny – so small I concluded that she should be in a coma – and yet she wasn't. It was so alarming that I went to the Hokage immediately – as my boss, the head of the children's ward here at the hospital, is currently in Suna on a research trip. We decided that the reason you," she looked at Olivia, "have such small chakra reserves are due to a number of reasons – your civilian ancestry, stress, poor diet and what we are assuming is a slight genetic mutation."

Akiko paused for a second, and then continued. "I also noticed something. It is a condition common with people who have small chakra reserves in active use – though not to the extent you have. There is chakra everywhere – both naturally and as a result of this being a ninja village, and whilst it is, as far as I am aware of, nearly impossible for someone to absorb natural chakra without special training,-"

'_I think she's talking about that cool sage-mode thing.'_ Thought Olivia before returning her attention to Akiko.

"_-_ it is possible for normal chakra to be absorbed – even subconsciously. For someone with such small reserves, chakra can also diffuse into the person. When I scanned you, I saw that the cumulative gain of chakra via subconscious absorption and diffusion was substantial and – I admit incorrectly – assumed you would be alright for a day, or even a week. However, I failed to take into account the fact you attend the academy. The jutsu you performed, though requiring only a small amount of chakra and despite you having done the jutsu before, was too much for your depleted reserves – you lost everything - thus you collapsed… It's called extreme chakra exhaustion, because it's effects are sudden and usually more severe, unlike normal chakra exhaustion in which you can tell when you're getting near it and tend not to have any serious consequences…" She looked like she wanted to say more, but hesitated.

"I still don't see what the big fuss is about – or why you said sorry so much." Blurted Olivia, annoyed at being so confused.

Akiko suddenly looked on the verge of tears. "Because Kumiko-san, when I got to you, you had no chakra at all. You were – technically – dead."

Predictably, both Kizashi and Mebuki gasped, and looked in shock at the medic, whilst Olivia, though surprised, was actually still quite confused. _'I thought you weren't technically dead until your heart stops? Or is it different here?'_

"What about my heart?"

"Your heart?"

"Did it stop? Is that why I collapsed?"

If Akiko was surprised by the relatively mature question, and remarkably calm attitude of the child asking it, then she didn't show it.

"I don't know – when someone collapses, the first thing we are trained to check is the chakra levels near your vitals. As soon as I felt the charka level of your central system reach, well, reach nonexistence, I pushed as much of my chakra into your system as I could. You regained consciousness quickly, which was a very good sign – indicating the rest of your body hadn't been without chakra for any length of time. I suppose it's like if your heart stops, as you said, then in civilian hospitals, you are technically dead, but there is a period of about 4 minutes after your heart stops where, if the heart can be restarted, there should be no long-term damage - due to risidual oxygen in the blood. It is pretty much the same with chakra, though the time period is much more variable between people. "

"Oh – ok…" Her question now answered, the fact of the matter hit her. _'I could have died... I could have…' _She took a deep breath, held it and let it out slowly. As she did, Mebuki let out a shaky breath. "Wha – what should we do? Should we take Kumiko out of the academy?"

That caught Olivia's full attention. '_Perfect – a medical reason not to become a ninja. Better yet, it's Mebuki-san who suggested it!' _

Unfortunately, it just wasn't Olivia's lucky day…

"No no – of course not. There is a rather simple method of controlling this condition, and as Kumiko ages, her reserves will increase, as will her chakra control. Having small chakra levels only poses a substantial threat when left undiagnosed. As long as Kumiko takes care – she'll be fine. Her reserves maybe small, but they also regenerate quickly, and the total amount of chakra you have, something with grows anyway, will increase quicker with you being at the academy. So – in a way, your safest bet is to stick with the ninja training; better to perhaps use a little too much in a place where there are medics who know of your condition, than to accidentally and subconsciously use too much chakra in a PE lesson at civilian school where no-one would have the training necessary to help."

'…_Whatttttt?! ... This is a load of bull.'_

Akiko pulled a large wad of papers from a drawer. "Kumiko-san, why don't you wait outside whilst I discuss things with your aunt and uncle – they can talk things over with you later."

Kizashi pinched the bridge of his nose, and nodded. "Yes, yes – off you go Kumiko-chan. Stay out of trouble yeah?"

"Just wait outside on a seat – don't talk to strangers!" Mebuki nudged Olivia towards the door as Olivia herself repressed the urge to yell – "I'm not a kid – I wanna know what's going on!" – As it would most likely just prove the reverse.

"Fine fine fine! I'm going, I'm going." Shutting the door behind her, she glanced dismissively at the set of chairs that lined the waiting room. '_Well if they think I'm a kid, then fine! And well, well - guess what – this kid doesn't do what she's told!' _Olivia started marching down a random corridor, giggling at her behaviour. As a child, Olivia had been rather quiet and a stickler for the rules, the idea of not doing what her parents asked had never crossed her mind – but she wasn't Olivia, was she?

'_Nope – I'm Koharuno Kumiko, and she doesn't ever take orders.' _She laughed again, though this time enough to earn some glances. In all fairness, it was rather strange to see a small child laughing to herself as she marched along the hospital corridors, though in all fairness Olivia was certain she was in shock, from both the current 'dead' thing and what had happened just the day before.

After a while Olivia came to the reception desk and contemplated leaving the building altogether, but decided that was a tad extreme. Instead, she figured she might as well investigate her back-up plan.

'_Not that I'll need it – there's no way I'm staying here. I bet one day, I'll blink and be back home. Yeah – but er… better safe than sorry.' _Pushing away her fears, and burying them deep inside her, she walked to the desk.

"Um – can I help you?" asked the receptionist. Said receptionist had a bald head, but with the largest beard and longest, most hairy eyebrows she had ever seen. Upon a closer look, she realised he had one hair still on the top of his head – one solitary hair than stood nearly vertical despite being fairly long. A quick glance at his name tag made her smile. Hagemada Kebukai – Bald yet hairy.

"Um – good afternoon! I was wondering… well – how do you become a medic?" She asked, deciding to get straight to the point.

The man smiled kindly at the small girl in front of him. "Well – there are many ways. I assume you want to be one?" Olivia nodded with a grin. "Ahh – very good. It's a well-respected profession, but not one easy to get into." He handed her a leaflet. "That should explain everything."

"Thank you!"

She moved a few metres away from the desk, at which a messy queue was forming, and started reading the pamphlet.

'_Ok, ok – let's see. The earliest starting point is… academy graduate as an apprentice… ok… I guess I could maybe pass the academy exam. I think. Ermm what else?'_ Scanning the page, she caught sight of the desired information, and promptly groaned.

'_Urgh! __**Graduates looking to apply must score at least 75% in ninjutsu and 70% in taijutsu. **__Great. I guess I __might__ be able to do that… it'll be hard though… What else? Oh…__** A letter of recommendation, preferably from a ninja and ideally one from your jounin sensei. '**_

Olivia racked her memories of the naruto series – she was sure that didn't sound right. '_That doesn't make sense – if you're applying after you graduate, wouldn't that imply you didn't pass the jounin graduation test – oh! __**Note: Jounin sensei can include the jounin who tested you.**__ This… this could work. I __obviously__ won't need it, but it could work.'_

"Koharuno Kumiko!"

Olivia jumped a foot in the air as her new name rang through the reception area. Mebuki stood by the door, looking for all the world like an angry, tired mother.

'_Oh snap. I better think fast!'_

"Er – hi!"

"Why aren't you in the waiting room?" For a split second, Olivia thought she saw something red appear next on the side of Mebuki's forehead, but before she could concentrate on it, the question caught her attention. The phrase was simple; it was a normal reaction and an understandable inquiry. Yet Olivia found herself with an answer she could never say.

'_Because I'm not Kumiko. I'm a 17 year old girl from another world who knows the future. I am not a hundred percent convinced that any of you, or this world, is real and am thus finding it difficult to take you seriously. I have my hopes of returning home, and now – thanks to my decision to disobey – I have my backup plan – I regret nothing.' _Apparently, stress and shock made Olivia rather melodramatic.

Of course, what she actually said was; _"_Huh? Was I supposed to stay there?" Olivia smiled as if she had no idea why Mebuki was annoyed, then changed expressions. Looking tearfully up at Mebuki, she added, "Why – did I do something wrong?"

Mebuki's anger waned, and her glare became uncertain. Had she actually told her to sit in the waiting room? Or did she just say to wait outside? She couldn't remember...

Olivia smiled slightly as Mebuki said "Never mind", then motioned for her to hold her hand as they went to find Kizashi. She did feel kind of bad for so shamelessly manipulating Mebuki – but she had her priorities: Survive and Go home were at the top, followed by Get a backup plan. Don't raise too much suspicion was soon after and currently Don't mess with the timeline was below that. She wanted to change things in the narutoverse, and she wanted to be a good person - it was... it was just... complicated.

* * *

"So – what did Akiko-san say?" asked Olivia curiously, as she walked in between Kizashi and Mebuki. It was about hour before lunchtime, and it had been decided that Kumiko was well enough to return to the academy as long as she didn't practise any jutsu. Olivia wasn't thrilled.

"Hmm? Oh – well, she gave us a leaflet on diet suggestions – you'll be eating a lot of chakra-boosting foods from now on! Hmm – what else. Oh – you must get at least 10 hours sleep every night, so no more late-night reading! You can read in the daytime. Umm what else, what else? Well – it's all in the package Akiko-san gave us. We'll go over it later today. Kizashi and I need to get back to work. Kizashi will collect you and Sakura after the academy by the entrance."

"Ok." They had reached the academy, and Kizashi handed Olivia her lunch, which Olivia had forgotten that morning. "Bye."

"Goodbye Kumiko-chan, have a good time!"

"Yes – and be careful!"

"Yes, I will." It was so odd – surreal in a way. Olivia couldn't remember the last time she walked to school with her parents. They had when she was younger of course, but once Olivia had started secondary school, she had insisted on walking to school alone. It was weird, suddenly being treated like a child again. No responsibilities, no worries, no decisions to make. It almost was worth being treated like a ten year old. _'Almost. But not quite.'_

* * *

"Ahh – Kumiko-chan you have returned to us! We thought you wouldn't be returning til tomorrow!" exclaimed Shoumaru joyously. A ten year old may have missed it, but Olivia could see how relieved he was that his student was ok – the way stress seemed to have slightly tighten his smile was nearly invisible, but she could tell, if only because she looked.

"I'm fine sensei, just had little case of severe chakra exhaustion." Replied Olivia dryly.

"Keh! I think you'll find you mean chakra-exhaustion. Nothing severe about it" Scoffed a boy nearby, as he bit into a riceball. It was the Uchiha. Olivia's eyebrow twitched. She wondered if he would have said that if she looked how old she was supposed to be.

'_He probably still would, arrogant little brat.'_

Slowly enunciating every word so she didn't make a mistake, she replied. "Actually, I meant severe chakra exhaustion. Normal chakra exhaustion, as I understand, is when someone collapses from not having enough chakra to stay conscious. I didn't collapse because of that. I collapsed because I had absolutely no chakra in my central system. Having nothing is more _extreme _than having a little. Therefore; severe chakra exhaustion." She had stumbled a lot over unfamiliar words, and had pronounced a few words slightly strangely, but the boy's face was priceless. Tsuba looked shocked for a minute, as did the rest of the class. She wondered vaguely if Kumiko had been a fangirl…

"You're an idiot. If you had no chakra, you'd be dead and you certainly wouldn't be here, acting like you're so smart." Shot back the Uchiha after he recovered from the shock of being challenged.

"Oh, I'm sorry – are you a medic? What? You aren't? Well – Akiko-san is and she said I had no chakra, and was technically dead. Now, whom should I believe? A trained mednin, or a jumped-up brat who thinks he's all that, but actually is just an arrogant little boy? Hmm? Sorry, but I'm sticking with Akiko-sans diagnosis. Speaking of which, here you go sensei." She handed a rather amused Shoumaru a letter from Akiko, explaining the situation. She then went to her seat, head held high and laughing like mad on the inside once she caught sight of the boy's face. Several other people, mostly boys, were actually laughing out loud, whereas there were a lot of the girls, she noticed, who were locked in a mixture between shock, horror and indignation. '_I guess he's their Sasuke. Ah – it looks like Kumiko's friends aren't exactly pleased. In fact, they look like they can't believe it. Oh well – I won't be here long after all.'_

* * *

**What was all that about? - Kaori**

A scrap of paper was nudged towards her. Olivia glanced at her friend, who wore an expression caught between amusement and disbelief, before Kaori went back to writing.

They were writing notes on the shinobi rules – an incredibly _fun_ task in which you wrote one of the laws – very neatly – then wrote a paragraph explaining its purpose and effects. Olivia knew she was only expected to write the simple answers – ones appropriate for her new age-group, but Olivia had the mind of a teenager who had been through several years of essay writing. She knew what she wanted to write, but didn't know how to write it correctly in Japanese. Added to the fact she had a very different writing style to Kumiko – in terms of not simply vocabulary, but also hand writing (made more difficult with having smaller hands), and Olivia found the task just as – if not more than – difficult as her ten year old classmates.

Whilst knowing this and despite _knowing _she would, of course, return someday to her world so it shouldn't matter, the situation still aggravated her, so she quickly wrote a reply '**Just a bad day**' before returning to her work. This apparently was the correct response as Kaori smiled and muttered, "Same old Kumiko."

'_A shinobi must never question their commander.' Bleh – ok, well I guess in stressful situations, the rule allows the maintenance of a hierarchy, increasing efficiency as well as other benefits. So… how would a ten year old put it?'_

**This rule means that when it's dangerous, people know who they must take orders from, and this will allow the mission to be completed better and quicker. **

'_I think that answers the question well enough, perhaps a little too simplified but – who cares.'_

* * *

Finally, it was lunchtime, and Olivia followed Kaori, Sango and Maka to the playground with the rest of her class. It was interesting; Olivia could only identify one classmate – Tsuba – as being from a ninja clan. She saw no pale pupil less eyes, no high collars paired with sunglasses, no red face marks or anything that indicated being a ninja-clan member. Considering the large amount of clan heirs in Naruto's year, she didn't know whether it was surprising or understandable that there was a low presence of shinobi – clan children in her year.

"Cool!" Sango exclaimed from her seat in the shade underneath a tree, effectively pulling Olivia from her ponderings. Sango had opened her lunch box – though Olivia thought she probably should call it a bento box – and was staring at its contents. Olivia, Maka and Kaori sat beside her and looked at the lunch. "Whoa…" Olivia breathed as she gazed at the masterpiece that was Sango's lunch. She had forgotten how pretty children's lunches were made. A cat in pink, a dog in blue and a yellow bird, sitting on a flowery field – that was what Sango was going to eat.

Upon investigation, she found her own lunch was pretty awesome too – no animals or flowers, but a message written in various foods saying '**Good Luck Kumiko!' **

Tasted pretty good too.

Kaori, Sango and Maka started talking energetically about Tsuba, and how amazing and cute and adorable and-smart-and-strong-and-brilliant-and – Olivia stopped listening, not because it was boring - she actually found the conservation rather funny - but because they were speaking about ten times too fast for Olivia to understand. So instead, Olivia just ate quietly and gazed around the playground.

They hadn't been sitting down long before another class entered the playground, but she didn't recognise most of them. She did recognise a few though – Lee was hard to miss, even though his clothes were different and he had a plait. Tenten and Neji were also spotted, and Olivia noticed they all looked rather lonely.

'_They'll have each other in a few years.' _Olivia told herself, before looking around as another class entered. This class had a lot of faces she recognised, especially with her time spent in the narutoverse helping her remember the series. She noticed Shikamaru and Chouji, who sat underneath another tree and Kiba, Shino and Ino who were playing tag or something with some other classmates – one of whom she was amazed to see was a smiling, giggling Sasuke. Sakura was sat on her own and upon a closer look, she saw Hinata…

'…_Hiding behind a tree?'_ Following her gaze, she understood what was going on. Hinata was watching Naruto - well technically she was watching everyone, too nervous to actually interact with anyone, but it was clear the majority of her attention was on Naruto, who was sat on his swing. She wanted to think Creepy Stalker Alert but honestly, Olivia had always liked Hinata's character – which was weird because she had a fairly different attitude to her own. Instead, she felt kind of sad for the girl, who was really just as lonely as Naruto.

Naruto was staring at his knees, looking all lonely and neglected. Olivia felt a trickle of guilt as she looked away – if things had been different, she would have done something, not just for Naruto, but Sakura, Hinata and the general place – but she couldn't, she just couldn't risk it. She couldn't change something when she knew things would be alright in the end. She couldn't change something, return home and never know how bad the effects were on the timeline. Plus – where to start? How could she choose?

Unfortunately, that choice was taken from her about ten minutes later, as a figure approached them, hands crossed defensively in front of him.

"Umm, hi."

The three girls next to her froze, then looked horrified as they saw who was standing close to them.

"You're, you're that boy!"

"Yeah! Why are you here? No-one wants you here!"

"Yea-hhh! Go away!"

Naruto shrank into himself, but after gulping, looked straight at Olivia. "Are you ok? Y'know from earlier?"

'_Wha_t_? That's why he's here? 'Cause he bumped into me? 'Cause I didn't react the one everyone else would have? Is he crazy?' _However, before Olivia had a chance to say anything, her friends leapt to her 'defence'.

"Don't talk to her! She's had a bad enough day without you making it a hundred times worse."

"Yeah – go sit on your own where you belong!"

Olivia had forgotten how cruel girls could be, especially at this age. The conservation was making her head hurt, and she couldn't think quickly enough to but in.

"Yea-hhh! No one wants you – my mum says your mother didn't even want you and that your dad was an enemy ninja. That's why no one likes you."

Naruto looked like he had been slapped for a second, then he glared back and was about to retort when Olivia took a chance.

"That's wrong." She blurted without really thinking.

"Huh?" The four said in union, three of them in confusion and one in awe.

"Well…" She faltered for a second, and then continued whilst berating herself for potentially messing with the narutoverse. "Well… his surname _is_ Uzumaki. The Uzumaki clan was from… was from Uzu- Uzuko… Uzushiogakure." She stumbled a little over the words, and worried if she was talking about things she shouldn't know, but continued anyway. "The village was allied with Konoha, and had such good relationships with us that their symbol – a red spiral – became incorporated into our chunin and jounin flak jackets. Also, the wife of the first Hokage was an Uzumaki." At least that was what her friend told her...

The four of them looked in shock at her; gaping wide enough Olivia could thought see their tonsils.

Olivia decided she might have gone a little too far.

"How do you know that?" Maka blurted out.

"Err… I read it somewhere… and I overheard some ninja talking about it… yeah."

Olivia inwardly face palmed at the lame reason – she hadn't thought this through. However, it seemed she had overestimated their intelligence as Kaori - who Olivia had gathered was the 'leader' of their little group, considering how she essentially ordered Maka and Sango to go first in jutsu practise - nodded and apologised - though slightly reluctantly - to a still gaping Naruto, which seemed to knock him out of his stupor as he proceeded to smile blindingly at Maka and Sango as they shrugged and nodded respectively and apologised to Naruto too.

'_That – that was all it took? Wait – he's sitting down? They're sharing their lunches with him? What? WHAT! What have I done?'_

**(Edit 01/02/13)  
**Preview:

"You're such a liar Kumiko!"

Olivia, surprised at being yelled at, looked up startled as she and Sakura stood in the playground waiting to be called in. Kaori - the one who had yelled - was marching up to her, looking as scary as a ten year old could. For a moment, Olivia thought she could see sparks in her eyes, which distracted her so her witty reply to the accusation was...

"Wha-? Huh?"

"I told my mummy and daddy what you said yesterday - about _Naruto," _She spat his name, "being part of the same clan as the woman who married the first hokage - and they said it wasn't true and sent me to bed with no dinner!"

_'Oops...'_

"It's true - honest I-"

"No - just because you don't have parents anymore, doesn't mean you can lie! My parents yelled at me for ages! It was horrible, and all your fault! You're not my friend anymore!" As Olivia tried to process what Kaori had yelled - she had said it all very quickly - Kaori stormed off and joined Sango and Maka, who had just arrived. All three of them proceeded to glare at Olivia.

'_Well - at least things are back to normal. Sure - I have no friends now... but it doesn't matter. I'll be back home soon enough...'_

* * *

**Well that was unexpected. And very long. But mostly unexpected. **

**Seriously – I actually meant for Kumiko's friend to reject Olivia for defending Naruto… but well – that didn't happen... Edit (01/02/13) Thought about it last night, decided I wanted to add something to it - tadaa~ preview!**

**So what do you think? Too fast? Too slow? Unbelievable? **

**Please review.**


	6. In Which A Lot Of Nothing Happens

**Oh my gosh – such a long chapter! Ugh – it nearly killed me! First part is kinda boring, but it has a lot of important stuff in it that is necessary for you to understand what's going to happen later on. I'm trying to make Olivia realistic; she changes her mind a lot (like we all do), she's trying to be brave but can let her fears make her irrational, she's rather melodramatic, can be hypocritical and is struggling between what she thinks she should do and what she thinks is right. Even to the point where she doesn't know **_**what**_** she should do, and **_**what**_** is right.**

**Due to me suddenly remembering that in Japan, school starts in spring, I've had to make a slight change. Sasuke's birthday, according to Narutopedia, is the 23****rd**** of July. This fanfic is currently set in mid to late September – so for this fanfic, let's just pretend Sasuke's birthday is now the 23****rd**** of November. Kumiko's birthday is now the 12****th**** of November.** ** Okay – sorry about that, but it's only a little detail.**

**This chapter just would not end –seriously, it took me an extra 1500 words to find a point at which to finish this chapter. And that is why this chapter is nearly 6000 words long ~ enjoy!**

**BTW - Publishing this on my 18th birthday, so ^_^ happy birthday to everyone who reads this, for whenever their birthday is!**

Also - thank you to all those who favourited/followed/reviewed :) :) :)

* * *

In which a lot of nothing happens

Olivia spent the rest of the academy day torn between panicking about the Naruto-Friends-Situation, or NFS as she affectionately called it, and trying to maintain Kumiko's style of work. For the latter, Olivia hoped the whole Newly-Orphaned-Plus-I-Collapsed-Today-So-Give-Me-A -Break Deal, or NOPICTSGMABD, would excuse any alterations from Kumiko's usual standard of work. It was the former that had the most potential to be problematic.

Naruto had made friends. Friends. FRIENDS. She knew, well was fairly certain, Naruto had at least occasionally hung around with Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba whilst he attended the academy, but Olivia was pretty sure Naruto didn't make friends – real friends – until he graduated the academy and even then it had taken a while. What could be the effects of the change? Slightly better social skills? Or the abandonment of his dream to become Hokage (if he'd even decided to become one yet) as he wouldn't end up being so starved of the acknowledgement that had led him to aim to become the most powerful ninja in the village.

Currently, Olivia was praying on the girls being as changeable as they seemed. That however raised another point to Olivia's attention – which should have been on the demonstration Shoumaru-sensei was giving on the various applications of the substitution jutsu – if the girls were as fickle as they seemed, and did forgo their sudden friendship with Naruto, would it change the boy? Would he become less trusting? Surely, one of Naruto's key traits was his blind willingness to trust others – even to the point of gullibility.

'_So… what? What should I do? If Sango, Maka and Kaori stay friends with him, then everything might go wrong – unlikely but possible. If they turn their backs on him, then everything also might go wrong – unlikely but, again, a possibility. I mean yes – this is a fictional world… probably, but if I really am in another world, even though I __won't__ be here long – (after all, I don't belong here, eventually this world will… realise this or something and, I guess, God/Kami will send me back… unless this is a test…)__ Anyway__, despite this, if I really am in another world, I shouldn't mess things up, right? That's like messing with, urm, fate… so… I should try to maintain how things are supposed to be… so… how do I… neutralise the NFS?'_

Olivia's thoughts trailed off as she tried to understand what Shoumaru-sensei was already halfway through explaining. As such, it wouldn't be until later that day – just as she went to bed in fact – when Olivia would realise three holes in her theory of 'maintaining the future'.

Olivia was a fairly smart person – clever and relatively quick thinking when she wasn't too stressed, however, the side effect of this meant her brain found it difficult to slow down and, in a way, stop thinking. This was why, in the middle of Shoumaru-sensei explaining to the girl, Suiko, why it was important to visualise when performing the technique, everyone in the classroom looked, rather startled, to Kumiko as she executed a perfect Face-Meets-Table manoeuvre.

The reason for this was that Olivia had just remembered exactly what it was she had said that had gotten her into the mess. She was surprised at how easily they had accepted what she had said – it had sounded rather extraordinary – but children trusted easier than adults did, however that really didn't make the situation any better. She hadn't thought her little speech through – the words had just burst out of her mouth. Olivia was not even sure if she had said the truth; she had gotten so caught up in the little kid's expression, her fears of altering the timeline had temporarily left her. In addition, she was positive that the information – if what she remembered was indeed true – she had divulged so freely was not common knowledge.

'_What if a ninja overheard me? An Anbu or a jōnin? What if they got suspicious? What if –'_

Olivia's thoughts descended into panic as she calmly copied a paragraph on the First Shinobi War from the textbook – the class now having moved on to Shinobi History – writing as neatly as she possibly could; Kumiko had left some very big, and by that she meant immaculate and eloquent, shoes to fill. '_I mean seriously – footnotes? What kind of ten year old writes footnotes?'_

* * *

"So how was your day Sakura-chan?" Olivia asked her cousin when she joined her in the playground, where all the academy students were waiting for their parents to collect them. Kaori, Sango and Maka had already been collected – leaving Olivia to stand awkwardly outside waiting for Sakura.

"It was ok… we learnt about sparring etiquette. Ooh – I also got full marks for my homework. How was your day?"

"Well… I collapsed." Olivia was thoroughly entertained by the huge range of expressions that ran across the girl's face as she took in what Olivia had just said. After that, the conservation got a lot easier.

Olivia was in the middle of explaining to Sakura why she had collapsed – adding as much detail as she could to it, turning it into a life-threatening adventure instead of the _apparently_ life-threatening mini-incident it actually had been – when she noticed a little blond boy with a white t-shirt sat all on his own on a swing. It was of course Naruto. Only he would be the subject to such fearful glances, worried looks and heated glares. Olivia actually took a step forward, the need to comfort him welling inside her heart, when Kizashi arrived.

Olivia didn't think she had ever felt as guilty as when she turned her back on the boy, who had just caught her eye and had started to wave at her, and followed Kizashi and Sakura out the academy grounds.

* * *

Teatime was interesting. As soon as Olivia had gotten back to the Haruno's, she had gone straight upstairs to her room and laid on her bed – exhausted from the day's events, and nauseous from the guilt, remorse, disappointment and inwardly directed anger that now racked her ten year old form and seventeen year old soul/spirit/whatever-you-wanna-call-it. As such it wasn't until supper that Kizashi and Mebuki got around to talking to Olivia about what Akiko had said and given Olivia the pack that they had been given.

The 'treatment' was set out, as mentioned, in a pack, which split the treatment into four main groups: Diet, Exercise, Meditation and Chakra. The first page was a typed summary, and had a few notes scribbled on it, assumedly by Akiko.

**DIET: Plenty of water, vegetables – especially peas and beans, and tomatoes. Fish or meat should be eaten every two days. Certain herbs and spices, listed within, should either be eaten as part of a meal or in a supplement form. Eat regularly and healthily. **_Remember to eat three meals every day Kumiko-chan!_

**Exercise: Light stretches in the morning. I hour a day of some form of physical exercise, not including academy P.E lessons. **_Don't overdo it. See your academy sensei for help and try to do something different every day._

**Meditation: Chakra exercises, including chakra control and boosting drills. See in pack for details. **_Your sensei should be able to help with this as well. Your small reserves will mean you have pretty good chakra control as it is, but as this treatment increases your total amount of chakra, it will be necessary for you to maintain and increase your chakra control as you go along._

**Chakra: Your parents/guardians, with your doctor/medic, will have arranged an appointment two days from now. This will be when you get your chakra seal. It will increase the absorption of diffused chakra into the body's central chakra system, act as a backup and will increase the growth and regeneration of your natural reserves**. _As your chakra reserves are so small, they regenerate quickly anyway, so the seal will mostly be to increase growth than anything._

'_So basically – everything a ten-year old isn't gonna wanna hear.' _thought Olivia as she finished reading the summary, and took a glance through the rest of the pack, whilst Mebuki told her that on Saturday – at noon – they would go to the hospital for the seal.

There were diet suggestions, most of which were written to the guardian of the child – like 'blend a variety of vegetables together into the sauces of your meals to increase uptake' and 'steam, don't fry.' There was a list of the mentioned herbs and spices - Chakra Kibe-soshiki, Chūō gētonegi, Ki ha no honshitsu and Antei shi patāngurasu were just some of the examples.

There was the list of stretches she was supposed to do daily – and little diagrams showing how to do them. It was basically yoga, from what Olivia could see. Underneath that page were a few examples of what exercise she could do: Twenty sit-ups, push-ups and squats, twice with a five-minute break in between was one example. Run for an hour was another. Olivia wondered how strong they thought ten-year olds were.

'_Maybe they gave me one meant for an older person? I mean twenty push ups? I could barely do five when I had my old body!'_

The chakra exercises were simple enough to begin with – a lot of visualising, pushing and pulling, putting it in various extremities for extended periods of time – like the feet for ten minutes. There was a series of steps, it seemed, beginning at the simpler stuff and getting increasingly harder as it went. In the middle of the table the exercises were set out in, there were examples like 'stick a piece of paper to your fingertips using chakra for-' after which were a series of times, like 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes etc... And then the same exercise but with different body parts. At the very end, Olivia was interested to see, was the tree walking exercise. Though _technically _in this case, it was the wall walking, very carefully, supervised and with a mat underneath you, exercise.

The chakra seal was actually quite interesting, though the pack did not mention many details about it, other than repeating in a longer version what was said in the summary. Though it would act as a chakra reserve – so if Olivia's own chakra reserves – the chakra in her central chakra system - fell to nil, like today, then it would release the backup chakra to try and revive her – it would primarily act as a catalyst. It would increase the rate at which Olivia's body took in normal chakra (not natural chakra) from the environment and diffuse it into her central chakra system – the gates – and to increase the rate at which her reserves grow and increase the renewal of her reserves, as she, herself, grows and uses chakra.

The way they put it, it sounded so boring, but Olivia was actually rather fascinated by the prospect of having a seal – even though she was also a bit afraid of it. Still curious, Olivia resolved to see if any of Kumiko's books (she had not managed to read even half of them last night) had anything on seals.

Even if they did not, it would serve as a distraction to read more books – that was Olivia's plan for the time being, whilst she found her feet – metaphorically – and before she tried figuring out a way back home – she would need to stay focused. She was getting homesick, but she could not let that control her.

The 'treatment' provided an excellent form of distraction, at least at first, as Olivia began an internal monologue or commentary on it – basically a whinge.

'_Great – vegetables, an exercise routine, yoga, meditation and a trip to the hospital. They certainly didn't try and ease me in. Seriously – 'I've' just started coming to terms, and by that I mean actually talking to people, with my parents' death, and as soon as 'I' do, they send me to the academy. Where 'I' nearly __**die.**__ They then tell me as much and explain it's because I'm basically defective, __and then__ set me up with a new lifestyle, printed all neatly in a pack, with little anecdotes courtesy of the medic who diagnosed me. If I was actually ten, I think I would have had a mental breakdown.'_

As Olivia ate the _delicious _meal of peas, fish and rice, served with a _frig _load of a herb Mebuki told her was Chūō gētonegi, which gave the meal – which would have otherwise tasted fairly good – a _lovely _burnt undertone with a hint of sour milk, she continued to think, though her mind started straying into more depressing territory.

'_For a supposed goody-goody ninja country, they sure do expect children to deal with stress easily… Like we're all little adults and are expected to get over things the same way.'_ That's when it clicked. _'Of course – that's exactly it! Bad things happen all the time here – and they happen to __you__. Ninjas go on missions and never come back. Civilians go to visit relatives and never reach their destination. Entire hidden villages could be wiped out, and no one will really blink an eye. Why?'_

Mebuki glanced worriedly at Kumiko, as did the rest her small family. Even the usually jokey husband of hers was lacklustre. She hoped the little girl wasn't going to go back to how she had been for the past couple of weeks. Maybe she had made a grave error in forcing the child to go to the academy today. As Mebuki started an internal debate, Olivia's thoughts continued.

'_Because no one knows any different – except for maybe the newest generation, and they're gonna need to get used to it soon, because it isn't gonna change. They all just have to get over it. Get on with it. Start getting prepared for the next hurdle, including the civilians. It's odd, my world – my home – constantly has a war going on somewhere, always has the threat of nuclear war breaking out and is where, thanks to the media – we are made well aware of all the muggings and murders (and worse) going on all over the place, and we know of them in infinite detail. _

_And yet despite that, I've always been so shielded – the wars don't touch me; I've never lived near a warzone nor known any soldiers. The idea of nuclear war, though it does make my palms sweat, doesn't nearly scare me as much as it would have had I lived a few decades ago; I'm fairly confident in its stalemate. I've thankfully never been mugged and obviously never been murdered, and I don't know anyone who has…'_

She was completely out of her depth in Konoha, and she knew it. Here in Konoha, an assassin could quite possibly be living next door to her. Here, they were actively training children ready to fight – heck, she was one of the children they were training, though she doubted they expected much from her, given her civilian background. She _knew_ a war of some sort was coming. Hell – even before that, there would be the chūnin exam invasion. That was only a few years away… but she would hopefully be home by then.

'_But before that – very imminently – the Uchiha clan is going to be massacred by that psycho clan heir, Itachi! There's no way my friend was telling to truth – I mean come on! This is the good nation; it doesn't go around removing clans it doesn't like. NO – Itachi is a mass murdering nutcase. And... And there is… there is __**nothing…**__ I can do to stop him… I guess Tsuba… won't be annoying me much longer… Oh my God…'_

Olivia lost her appetite. She felt sick, terrified, twitchy and guilty. The sour milk taste mixed with burnt-tasting rice, fish and peas didn't help.

"Kumiko, finish your dinner." Mebuki's words half broke her out of her stupor. Olivia shook herself slightly, looking rather dazed, leading Mebuki and Kizashi to exchange a worried glance, and then proceeded to eat another few mouthfuls – doing as Mebuki said without really thinking about it – before dashing to the bathroom. There, she vomited, again and again until there was nothing left but bile, and even then, the heaving wouldn't stop.

As Olivia hung her head over the toilet bowl, tears welling in her eyes as her throat burned and stomach clenched, she could honestly say she would have done anything at that moment to have her own mother be the one comforting her, instead of Mebuki. And if Olivia hadn't been feeling so awful, she probably would have – in her own over dramatic way – face palmed as Kizashi mentioned that he may have put in a bit too much of 'that herb' in her meal.

* * *

~A few hours later~

Olivia was sat in her bed, reading a scroll on the Founding Clans of Konoha. She had been reading non-stop about ninja techniques, chakra and blahblah-academy-stuff-blahblahblah since she had been _put to bed _after her vomit scene so she could rest, and frankly, there was only so much schoolwork a person could do before they went mental. So, she was reading the scroll of the founding clans – it was a fairly good read – it read more like a story than a textbook.

It was very interesting – not only did it talk about the treaties and arrangements that were made to form the alliances, but also about – though not in a great amount of detail – what each of the clans brought to Konoha and why they were considered powerful enough to form a hidden ninja village with the others. The overall theme of the scroll, it seemed, was either the 'power of unity' or 'smart exploitation'. She couldn't decide which one though…

'…_the Uchiha clan's taijustu. Though the clan does not have a specific Clan Taijutsu, it does have a series of Kata – which are not shared with non-clan members – which incorporate their ninjutsu (Fire based), genjutsu and Sharingan. This provided a great asset to Konoha, as even young Uchihas were taught it and as Shiniobi – even at genin level – could use it and incorporate it into the taijutsu taught in the academy, it being based on quick jabs, dodging and small fire jutsu, rather than large blows and circular deflections…'_

It sounded like a brilliant taijutsu style, even if it wasn't technically a taijutsu, and appeared to be the exact opposite of Naruto's initial fighting style. Before Naruto got some serious taijutsu training, he mainly – from what Olivia remembered – fought with shadow clones in what was essentially a brawl. He wasn't very fast, and had (if minimal) defensive actions, but he only needed to land a couple of true hits to cause damage.

In reverse, the style mentioned in the scroll revolved heavily around dodging – not blocking in offensive manoeuvres like the Hyūga's Taijutsu – but in calm, quick, fluid movements around attacks, followed by a quick hit to a vital region – whether that be a punch to the neck, kidneys or head, or a kunai to somewhere more specific like the jugular or spine. Whilst doing this they were be using small fire jutsu to distract and exhaust the enemy, and of course using their sharingan as often as they could.

It was a shame – minus the stuff about the sharingan and fire jutsu – it sounded perfect for Kumiko (and Sakura for that matter), but it was strictly Clan Members Only. Plus – it wasn't gonna be around for much longer - once the clan went, it went. Olivia wondered if Sasuke was taught any…

Not that it mattered…

…Though she did like the idea of Naruto learning the katas – combining it with his strength and the speed he would one day achieve, Naruto would gain a formidable Taijutsu style; balancing speed with strength, offensive with defensive and blocking with dodging. The idea of balance was mentioned in one of Kumiko's academy books. It talked about Yin and Yang, Night and Day, Moon and Sun, Winter and Summer… Personally, Olivia thought it was a shameless rip off from Mulan 2. However, she did think the concept of balancing in regards to chakra made a lot of sense.

**The balancing of Physical and Spiritual energies (also known as chi, chakra) is vital for the making of the maximum amount of useable chakra it is possible for a person to make. Meditation (and the pursuit of wisdom) increases spiritual energies, whereas Exercise increases Physical energies.**

Olivia, still guilty about Naruto, wondered if there was a way to… balance the effect of whichever path the NFS took. A way to counteract the action. The dimension-traveling girl did not particularly like the idea of deliberately acting mean to Naruto if the girls stayed friends with him. The idea of befriending Naruto if they – due to peer pressure or whatever – did not continue their new friendship was slightly better. Although, she did wonder how safe it was to become his friend when in a few short years, Naruto was going to be hunted by some rather strong people.

'_But it shouldn't affect me… even if I… haven't managed to go home by then; I'm never going to be very strong. Heck – I'm gonna be weak; a weak ninja and perhaps a slightly better medic – so the chances of them bothering with me should be rather slim. However… I'm won't be very able to defend myself on the slim chance that they do attack me… UGH! Why do I even care? I'm gonna find a way home – It's a year and a half until I graduate, and after that there's still another two years before Naruto attains genin rank – I have plenty of time to figure this out. I'm seventeen! I can do this – in Naruto's words, at least in the dubbed, BELIEVE IT!'_

Speaking of caring, the Uchiha clan's situation kept popping into Olivia's mind. Should she tell someone? Warn them that Itachi was, y'know, CRAZY?! But whom could she tell? They wouldn't believe her anyway – it would be her word against that of the prestigious prodigy and clan heir. Maybe she should just let it be – that was what she had decided earlier, wasn't it. To maintain the future?

She wondered if it would be so difficult if she hadn't spoken to – and thus at least acknowledged the existence of – the Tsuba kid, brat though he was. '_Damn my conscience!'_

* * *

Olivia sighed, and then closed the scroll – she had read the same line twice now and it was clear she was too distracted to concentrate. Standing up, pleased she no longer felt like puking (though she did have a sore throat and uncomfortably empty stomach) she lightly stretched and then tried to touch her toes. That was a mistake. Nausea, once again, flooded her. For a moment, she was sure she was going to throw up again, but then something caught her eye. It was her reflection and she was green.

It was not a metaphor.

She was green. **Green. **_**GREEN.**_

_**SHE WAS GREEN!**_

Startled, she stumbled towards the mirror. It was weird, like she was seeing double, similar to when you look at an optical illusion. There was a hidden… or was it superimposed… Olivia couldn't tell…. image as well as her own reflection. She scrutinised her appearance.

She looked real – she could see each of her individual eyelashes and her teeny tiny pores. She could see the little veins in her eyes and the way her lips were slightly chapped from dehydration. However, when she relaxed her sight, sort of the opposite of going cross-eyed, she saw another image. It was her –but, simply put, as if she was in an anime.

Which, if you think about it for about a second, she was.

For a moment Olivia thought how amazing, and revolutionary, and wowowowowow it was, and then she realised; it wasn't. It didn't mean anything – it wasn't useful for starters, and really, it made sense. Kumiko – Kumiko's eyes and physical brain – saw the world as real. Olivia – her soul or whatever – saw it as an anime. Which meant the world was real… but also an anime…, which really did not matter.

She was leaving soon anyway. Olivia waited until she was no longer green – which took as long as it took for the nausea to fade – before standing.

After Olivia had removed all the scrolls and books of her bed, including her homework – a brief description of the uses of the Substitution Jutsu, which had been why she had started looking through her academy textbooks as she had no idea what they were – she changed for bed. She then looked at the stars (There was _so _little light pollution here!), prayed she would wake up at home and snuggled deep into her bed.

She had just – _just _– gotten all warm and toasty when three, for lack of a better word, plot holes, came running to her sleepy mind. They were for her – Maintain the Future – theory.

One – wouldn't the future already have changed just be Olivia existing in Kumiko's body? Assuming that Kumiko had either died with her parents or never existed in the first place in the original anime. The whole butterfly causing a tsunami thing sprung to mind as well.

Two – what if the reason she was here was _to _change things? Like some sort of divine test. It wouldn't surprise her – she was certain God/Kami had a rather interesting sense of humour when it came to mortals.

And Three – this one was the last one. It came to her as she was just about to fall asleep. *** **Fate may exist, but it's what only that what you make of it. It can change, or rather none of us know for definite our fate; therefore our fate is what we make it. Any illusions of what must be fate are only made true if we follow them. The present affects the future, not the other way around. This meant that she _could_ change the future, if she wanted to.

But did she want to? That was the question.

* * *

After waking up again in Naruto – once again disappointed – Olivia did a few of the stretches the pack had shown, eaten a breakfast of rice with beans, and a tablet supplement for a chakra spice, she and Sakura walked to school – Mebuki and Kizashi having left early to get to work.

She had been standing in the academy grounds no longer than a minute when a sudden yell over her shoulder caught her attention.

"You're such a liar Kumiko!"

Olivia, surprised at being yelled at, looked up. Kaori - the one who had yelled - was marching up to her, looking as scary as a ten-year old could. For a moment, Olivia could actually see the sparks in her eyes, which distracted her so her witty reply to the accusation was...

"Wha-? Huh?"

"I told my mummy and daddy what you said yesterday - about _Naruto," _She spat his name, "being part of the same clan as the woman who married the first Hokage - and they said it wasn't true and sent me to bed with no dinner!"

_'Oops...'_

"It's true - honest I-" She was sure it was…

"No - just because you don't have parents anymore, doesn't mean you can lie! My parents yelled at me for ages! It was horrible, and all your fault! You're not my friend anymore!" As Olivia tried to process what Kaori had yelled - she had said it all very quickly - Kaori stormed off and joined Sango and Maka, who had just arrived. All three of them proceeded to glare at Olivia.

'_Well - at least things are back to normal. Sure - I have no friends now... but it doesn't matter. I'll be back home soon enough... Ooh! Ok – so the NFS is taking __**that**__ path… ok. I wonder what they're gonna say to Naruto…'_

"Naruto?" Sakura's voice brought Olivia out from her thoughts. She turned to face her cousin, apparently a bit abruptly as Shy-Sakura let herself be known in a squeak. Olivia, however, didn't notice.  
"Yeah – Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto – he's in your class, right?" replied Olivia, perhaps a tad confrontational – a flash of a twelve-year-old, much more confident Sakura hitting Naruto around the head appearing before her eyes. As stupid as Naruto had acted in the anime, she had always felt so annoyed when Sakura hit him – it was hypocritical considering how annoying Sakura was prior to Tsunade's training. At least Naruto was strong, whereas Sakura wasn't really that much of anything until the second season, with exception to that moment in the Forest of Death.

However, the person she seemed to have forgotten she was talking to was not the twelve-year-old Sakura, in love with 'Sasuke-kun~' and eternal rivals with Yamananka Ino. This was little eight year old Sakura, with no friends and constantly bullied for her admittedly large forehead, which she only brought more attention to by covering it with a fringe.

As such, in response to her fervent statement, Sakura lost her ability to speak, and starting incoherently spluttering and mumbling. If it wasn't for her rather unique colourings, it could have been possible to mistake her for Hinata.

'_Oops – I shouldn't have said it like that. I shouldn't judge her on what hasn't even happened yet, and it's not like I'm perfect. From what I can remember, I was an obnoxious brat as a child, a teacher's pet as a young teenager, and well – a ten-year old in my late teenage years… Ah! Nonononono – don't cry!'_

As Olivia flapped around Sakura, apologising profusely and trying to prevent the waterworks, the academy grounds' usually noisy, bustling atmosphere hushed to a momentary silence, before the whisperings of the adults enveloped the area. Olivia looked around the yard for the reason behind the sudden gossiping. She found her answer walking through the entrance to the academy grounds; heads held high and child-in-tow, an Uchiha family entered the premises.

The child was unmistakably Sasuke, who she had seen just the day before, which would make the two adults Fugaku and Mikoto. Though that much was obvious if you looked at them; if she looked at them in the right way, they looked exactly as they had done in the anime.

The Clan head, his wife and his second son walked further in, all whispering ceasing once they were within fifty yards or so to the crowd of other parents. Olivia, trying to distract herself from the unease she felt at being so close to the soon-to-be-killed-by-their-psycho-first-born adults, noticed Fugaku catch the gaze of a few other Clan heads – Hyuuga, Nara, Yamananka etc…, and exchange a nod with them, which they returned.

'_Clan Etiquette I guess.'_ Olivia thought. She looked closely at the Uchiha family, curious as to why they had caused such whispering. She hadn't able to hear what any adults were saying, but she got the feeling they hadn't been gossiping about Mikoto's choice of obi or any such frivolity.

'_I thought the Uchiha clan was like – __**uber-respected – **__like the Hyuuga clan, and that __that__ was why Sasuke was so prized after the massacre. Well – that and because he had the potential to get the sharingan… so what's up with all these looks? They're looking at them the same way they look at Naruto… ah - no. Not the same, they're disguising it more so now, but still – how odd.'_

* * *

Class was, as she was finding most things, interesting.

Sango, Maka and Kaori were ignoring her presence, except on occasion where one of them would look curiously at the girl who had defended _that boy_, and when Olivia caught their gaze and smiled – because _she _was finding the whole thing hilarious – they would glare, "Hmmph!" and look determinedly at the board.

They were doing civilian subjects that day – Maths, Language and Literature, basic science, geography and so on – though everything had a ninja undertone.

'**Saki ran 3 miles in one hour. Given that she runs non-stop at a constant speed, how far will she have run 35 minutes into that hour?'**

'**Write 1000 words on the advantages of using Ninja over Samurai.'** Not advantages _and _disadvantages – just advantages, Olivia noticed, amused.

'**Write a short story about ninja's adventure whilst on a mission using descriptive language.' **

'_An innocent ploy to encourage us towards a ninja career if ever I saw one.' _Olivia thought bemused as she finished her story. It was a ridiculously easy day, if you didn't count the language change. The only real problem she had was trying to answer as a ten-year old would, but even that wasn't too hard as Kumiko had been a bright kid anyway.

She was, however, getting sick of having to wait for the rest of her classmates to finish. She had finished fifteen minutes ago – how long did it take to write a little short story? It had taken her ten minutes – and she had written three sides!

Though her handwriting had descended to chicken scrawl after the first half side…

'_Ugh – I'll rewrite it. Stupid Kumiko with her perfect handwriting! Keh!'_

* * *

**Yay! You managed to finish the chapter - well done, my good sirs and ladies, good show ^_^**

*** Written by me when I was about 14. Cybercake for anyone who can guess what part of Naruto it is based on!**

**You think you know me, you think you know this world,  
But fate won't protect you,  
And destiny's just a joke.  
This is just the beginning, of my strength revealing,  
You can't even begin yet,  
With your thoughts so clouded.  
Your eyes might see what can't be seen,  
But your mind is blind, take my word for it,  
Remember destiny's got nothing on me.  
I won't lose to someone like you,  
Watch me, I'll take on everyone,  
This village is what made me,  
My faith in myself is what saved me.**


End file.
